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, assistant professor in the �鶹��ý of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, received a five-year, $2.98 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to improve aphasia treatment.

Through the study, titled “,” Evans and his team will develop and evaluate novel adaptive computer-based aphasia treatments to help improve the efficiency and long-term impact of language treatment.

Aphasia, commonly caused by stroke or other acquired brain injuries, can have a negative effect on an individual’s quality of life, often leading to depression and feelings of isolation. A primary frustration for people with aphasia is anomia, or word-finding difficulty.

Evans has studied the language disorder for more than a decade, investigating methods to help people with aphasia improve their communication abilities.

His team includes Lauren Terhorst, professor, Department of Occupational Therapy; Peter Brusilovsky, professor, �鶹��ý of Computing and Information; Jeff Starns, associate professor, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst; and Will Hula, speech-language pathologist, Veterans Health Foundation.