Investigate the development of the human auditory system using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), with a special focus on the influence of auditory training on brain plasticity in children and adults with language/reading impairments (e.g., specific language impairments and developmental dyslexia), musicians and a variety of psychiatric populations.
Develop auditory or musical training programs that may help to reorganize deficient functional network components in children with developmental dyslexia and persons with reading problems and evaluating these using fMRI, EEG or real-time fMRI. Also, to work at employing the fMRI technique as a diagnostic tool or for prevention of reading problems.
Investigate the development of reading processes (such as orthographic pattern recognition, phonological processing and semantic processing) in pre-reading children, young readers and proficient readers.
Investigate the relationships between musical training and language and/or reading development. Investigate whether musical training can improve reading in reading-impaired children.
Continue to work on the develoment of new techniques that circumvent issues with fMRI, namely, the noise created by the switchin of the gradient coils during the read of of the MR signal, which makes auditory tasks in the fMRI environment challenging. The loud scanner background noise may lead to additional cognitive processes, such as auditory inhibition or selective attention processes not only in auditory tasks and these effects may differ between populations (e.g., children and adults). Dr. Gaab and her colleagues will also continue to improve pediatric functional imaging techniques.
About Nadine Gaab
Nadine Gaab received her PhD from the University of Zurich, Switzerland and was a Visiting Scholar at Harvard Medical School. She completed postgraduate training at Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Key Publications
Gaab, N., Gabrieli, J.D.E., Deutsch, G., Tallal, P., and Temple, E. Neural correlates of rapid auditory processing are disrupted in children with developmental dyslexia and ameliorated with training: An fMRI study. Restorative Neuroscience and Neurology (in press).
Tallal, P. and Gaab, N. (2006). Dynamic Auditory Processing, Musical Experience and Language Development. Trends in Neurosciences, 29(7), 382-370. (2006)
Gaab, N., Gabrieli, J., and Glover, G. (2006). Assessing the influence of scanner background noise on auditory processing. I. An fMRI study comparing three experimental designs with varying degrees of scanner noise. Human Brain Mapping. [epub ahead of print]
