Claudia Peñaloza, PhD
Aphasia, Dementia, Language, Learning, Bilingualism, Cognition, Neuropsychology & Brain research
About Claudia Peñaloza
Lifelong learning: My research bio
I am a Ramon y Cajal research fellow at the Department of Cognition, Development and Educational Psychology of the University of Barcelona. I am also a member of the Cognition and Brain Plasticity Unit led by Antoni Rodríguez Fornells, a research group hosted by the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute IDIBELL. I continue to collaborate with the Aphasia Research Laboratory at Boston University (United States) where I was also a postdoctoral associate under the mentoring of Swathi Kiran. I completed my PhD in Psychology at the University of Barcelona (Spain) under the supervision of Antoni Rodríguez Fornells and Matti Laine and in close collaboration with Nadine Martin. I obtained my MA diploma in Clinical and Health Psychology from the same university. During this time, I completed my specialization and training in clinical neuropsychology under the supervision of Montserrat Juncadella while also working as a research assistant at the Virtual Reality Lab directed by José Guitérrez Maldonado. I got a BA in Psychology at Universidad Católica Boliviana San Pablo in La Paz (Bolivia) where I first got fascinated by cognitive neuropsychology working with Bismarck Pinto Tapia.
I act as a referee for several international peer-reviewed academic journals. I am an elected member of the Institute of Neurosciences at the University of Barcelona and the Collaboration of Aphasia Trialists (elected deputy lead of working group 2: Aphasia Assessments and Outcomes and elected member of working group 6: Cognition and Aphasia), and a member of the Society of the Neurobiology of Language.
About my research
Language is a highly complex, structured and dynamic system of multiple elements that unfold sequentially over time, complex rules that govern them, and arbitrary relationships that define the links between different representational levels involving word forms and meanings. Bilingualism confers further richness and both functional and neuroanatomical complexity to this system. While language interacts with multiple cognitive processes, both language and cognitive processes may undergo breakdown following acquired brain damage and neural degeneration.
My research work combines tools and approaches from psycholinguistics, cognitive neuroscience, and neuropsychology to study the interplay between language processing and multiple aspects of cognition (i.e., memory, learning and executive function) in clinical populations with language impairment. I am particularly interested in learning as a fundamental aspect of cognition that is inherent to rehabilitation. I employ different learning paradigms to study the ability to learn novel phonology and semantics in people with aphasia, determine how learning interacts with different cognitive processes and identify the neural underpinnings of this ability. My ultimate goal is to understand how the interaction between language and general cognitive processes contributes to treatment response and long-term outcomes in individuals with language deficits including people with aphasia and neurodegenerative disorders. I am also interested in studying how languages interact in the bilingual brain in the presence of neural damage, characterizing the role of cognitive control on language deficits in the context of individual differences in bilingual language learning history, and identifying better ways to assess deficits and predict recovery and therapy response in bilingual populations.
Published Work
MANUSCRIPTS SUBMITTED OR UNDER REVIEW
Laine, M., Peñaloza, C., Eräste, T., Kunnari, A., Rodríguez-Fornells, A. Spontaneous strategies used during novel word learning (submitted).
ARTICLES PUBLISHED IN PEER-REVIEWED JOURNALS
2024
Martínez-Ferreiro, S., Arslan, S., Fyndanis, V., Howard, D., Kuvač-Kraljević, J., Matić-Škorić, A., Munarriz-Ibarrola, A., Norvik, M., Peñaloza, C., Pourquie, M., Simonsen, H. G., Swinburn, K., Varlokosta, S., Soroli, E. (2024). Guidelines and recommendations for cross-linguistic aphasia assessment: A review of 10 years of Comprehensive Aphasia Test adaptations (in press).
2023
Varkanitsa, M., Peñaloza, C., Charidimou, A., & Kiran, S. (2023). Cerebral small vessel disease burden: An independent biomarker for anomia treatment responsiveness in chronic stroke patients with aphasia. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 104, 1630-1637.
Scimeca, M., Peñaloza, C. & Kiran, S. (2023). Multilevel factors predict treatment response following semantic-feature based intervention in bilingual aphasia. Bilingualism, language and cognition, 1-17.
Navarrete-Orejudo, L., Cerda-Company, X., Olivé, G., Martin, N., Laine, M., Rodríguez-Fornells, A. Peñaloza, C. (2023). Expressive recall and recognition as complementary measures to assess novel word learning ability in aphasia. Brain and Language, 243, 105303.
Marte, M., Peñaloza, C., & Kiran, S. (2023). The cognate effect on lexical access in bilingual aphasia: Evidence from the Boston Naming Test. Bilingualism, Language and Cognition, 1-17.
Olivé, G., Peñaloza, C., Vaquero, L., Laine, M., Martin, N., Rodríguez-Fornells, A. (2023). The right uncinate fasciculus supports verbal short-term memory in aphasia. Brain, Structure and Function, 228, 875-893.
Peñaloza, C., Grasemann, U., Miikkulainen, R., & Kiran, S. (2023). Modeling bilingualism as a dynamic phenomenon in healthy and neurologically affected speakers across the lifespan: A commentary on “Computational modeling of bilingual language learning: Current models and future directions”. Language Learning, 73, 78-82.
2022
Peñaloza, C., Martin, N., Laine, M., & Rodríguez-Fornells, A. (2022). Language learning in aphasia: A narrative review and critical analysis of the literature with implications for language therapy. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 141, 104825.
Marte, M., Carpenter, E., Scimeca, M., Falconer, I., Abdollahi, F., Peñaloza, C., & Kiran, S. (2022). LEX-BADAT: Language EXperience in Bilinguals with and without Aphasia DATaset. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 875928.
Scimeca, M., Abdollahi, F., Peñaloza, C., & Kiran, S. (2022). Clinical perspectives and strategies for confronting disparities in social determinants of health for Hispanic bilinguals with aphasia. Journal of Communication Disorders, 98, 106231.
Quiroz, Y. T., Solis, M., Aranda, M. P., Arbaje, A. I., Arroyo-Miranda, M., Cabrera, L. Y., Carrasquillo, M. M., Corrada, M. M., Crivelli, L., Diminich, E. D., Dorsman, K. A., Gonzales, M., González, H. M., Gonzalez-Seda, A. L. , Grinberg, L. T., Guerrero, L. R., Hill, C. V., Jimenez-Velazquez, I. Z., Llibre Guerra, J. J., Lopera, F., Maestre, G., Medina, L. D., O’Bryant, S., Peñaloza, C., Pinzon, M. M., Pirela Mavarez, R. V., Pluim, C. F., Raman, R., Rascovsky, K., Rentz, D. M., Reyes, Y., Rosselli, M., Gámez Tansey, M, Vila-Castelar, C., Zuelsdorff, M., Carrillo, M., & Sexton, C. (2022). Addressing the disparities in dementia risk, early detection and care in Latino populations: Highlights from the Second Latinos and Alzheimer’s Symposium. Alzheimer's & Dementia,18, 1677–1686.
2021
Carpenter, E., Peñaloza, C., Rao, L., Kiran, S. (2021). Clustering and switching in verbal fluency across varying degrees of cognitive control demands: Evidence from healthy bilinguals and bilingual patients with aphasia. Neurobiology of Language, 2, 532-557.
Peñaloza, C., Scimeca, M., Gaona, A., Carpenter, E., Mukadam, N., Gray, T., Shamapant, S., & Kiran, S. (2021). Telerehabilitation for word retrieval deficits in bilinguals with aphasia: Effectiveness and reliability as compared to in-person language therapy. Frontiers in Neurology, 12, 598.
Grasemann, U.†, Peñaloza, C.†, Dekhtyar, M., Miikkulainen, R., & Kiran, S. (2021). Predicting language treatment response in bilingual aphasia using neural network-based patient models. Scientific Reports, 11, 10497. [† Shared first authorship]
2020
Peñaloza, C., Dekhtyar, M., Scimeca, M., Carpenter, E., Mukadam, N., & Kiran, S. (2020). Predicting treatment outcomes for bilinguals with aphasia using computational modelling: Study protocol for the PROCoM randomized controlled trial. BMJ Open, 10:e040495.
Varkanitsa, M., Peñaloza, C., Charidimou, A., Caplan, D., & Kiran, S. (2020). White matter hyperintensities predict response to language treatment in poststroke aphasia. Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair, 34(10), 945-953.
Carpenter, E., Rao, L., Peñaloza, C., & Kiran, S. (2020). Verbal fluency as a measure of lexical access and cognitive control in bilinguals with aphasia. Aphasiology, 34(11), 1341-1362.
2019
Peñaloza, C., Barrett, K., & Kiran, S. (2019). The influence of prestroke proficiency on poststroke lexical-semantic performance in bilingual aphasia. Aphasiology, 34(10), 1223-1240.
Tort-Merino, A., León, M., Olives J., Peñaloza, C., Valech, N., Santos-Santos, M. A., Camara, E., Grönholm-Nyman, P., Martínez-Lage, P., Fortea, J., Molinuevo, J. L., Sánchez-Valle, Laine, M., Rodríguez-Fornells, A., Rami, L. (2019). Tau protein is associated with longitudinal memory decline in subjects with normal Alzheimer’s disease cerebrospinal fluid levels. Journal of Alzheimer’s disease, 70(1), 211-225.
Peñaloza, C., Grasemann, U., Dekhtyar, M., Miikkulainen, R., & Kiran, S. (2019). BiLex: A computational approach to the effects of age of acquisition and language exposure in bilingual lexical access. Brain and Language, 195, 104643.
2017
Peñaloza, C. & Kiran, S. (2017). Neuroimaging evidence in the treatment of bilingual/multilingual adults with aphasia. Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups, 2(2), 126–131.
Ripollés, P., Biel, D., Peñaloza, C., Kaufmann, J., Marco-Pallares, J., Noesselt, T., & Rodriguez-Fornells, A. (2017). Strength of temporal white matter pathways predicts semantic learning success. Journal of Neuroscience, 37(46), 11101-11113.
Peñaloza, C., Mirman, D., Cardona, P., Juncadella, M., Martin, N., Laine, M., & Rodriguez-Fornells, A. (2017). Cross-situational word learning in aphasia. Cortex, 93, 12-27.
Tort-Merino, A., Valech, N., Peñaloza, C., Grönholm-Nyman, P., León, M., Olives, J., Estanga, A., Ecay, M., Fortea, J., Martínez-Lage, P., Molinuevo, J.L., Laine, M., Rodriguez-Fornells, A., Rami, L. (2017). Early detection of learning difficulties when confronted with novel information in preclinical Alzheimer’s disease stage 1. Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, 58(3), 855-870.
2016
Peñaloza, C., Mirman, D., Tuomiranta, L., Benetello, A., Heikius, I. M., Järvinen, S., Majos, M.C., Cardona, P., Juncadella, M., Laine, M., Martin, N., & Rodriguez-Fornells, A. (2016). Novel word acquisition in aphasia: Facing the word-referent ambiguity of natural language learning contexts. Cortex, 79, 14-31.
Peñaloza, C., Gutiérrez-Maldonado, J., Ferrer-García, M., Caqueo-Urízar, A., Reverter-Guimeso, A., Macías-Cajal, Y., Amela-Huemes, D., Perales-Josa, S. (2016). Cognitive mechanisms underlying Armoni: A computer-assisted cognitive training program for individuals with intellectual disabilities. Anales de Psicología, 32(1), 115-124.
2015
Peñaloza, C., Benetello, A., Tuomiranta, L., Heikius, I., Järvinen, S., Majos, M.C., Cardona, P., Juncadella, M., Laine, M., Martin, N., & Rodriguez-Fornells, A. (2015). Speech segmentation in aphasia. Aphasiology, 29, 724-743.
2014
Peñaloza, C., Rodríguez-Fornells, A., Rubio, F., De Miquel, M., & Juncadella, M. (2014). Language recovery and evidence of residual deficits after nonthalamic subcortical stroke: A 1 year follow-up study. Journal of neurolinguistics, 32, 16-30.
BOOK CHAPTERS
Scimeca, M., & Peñaloza, C. Aphasia in bi-/multi-lingual language users (under review).
Peñaloza, C., Miikkulainen, R., Grasemann, U., & Kiran, S. Computational approaches to bilingualism (under review).
Peñaloza, C., & Kiran, S. (2019). Recovery patterns in multilingual aphasia. In: J. W. Schwieter, (Ed.), The Handbook of the Neuroscience of Multilingualism (553-571). New Jersey: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing.
Peñaloza, C. (2017). Capacidad residual de aprendizaje de lenguaje en personas con afasia crónica. In: Roth, E. (Ed.), Hacia el Medio Siglo de la Psicología en Bolivia (pp. 57-88). La Paz: Plural Editores.
Funding, honors and awards
2024
Elected co-chair of the Teleneuropsychology and Digital Technologies Special Interest Group of the International Neuropsychological Society (INS).
2023
Co-PI (with Maria Mataró) Project: Lifestyle-SVD: Exploring the impact of lifestyle factors on cognitive and emotional functioning via small vessel disease (SVD) biomarkers in healthy older adults and stroke patients. Funding: National Academy of Neuropsychology, United States.
Collaboration of Aphasia Trialists 10 year anniversary Award for Knowledge for early stage researchers. Reykjavík, Iceland.
Tenure-track Ramón y Cajal research fellow position at Universitat de Barcelona. Sponsor: Ministry of Science and Innovation [Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación]. Spain.
2021
Elected deputy lead of Working Group 2: Aphasia Assessments and Outcomes of the Collaboration of Aphasia Trialists (CATs).
Travel scholarship to attend the 3rd Workshop on Research Definitions for Reserve and Resilience in Cognitive Aging and Dementia. Sponsor: Program Committee of the 3rd Workshop on Research Definitions for Reserve and Resilience in Cognitive Aging and Dementia. Bethesda, MD, United States.
2020
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association’s ASHA 2020 Pathways mentoring program fellow. Sponsor: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association’s ASHA. United States.
Postdoctoral contract Juan de la Cierva-Incorporación at Universitat de Barcelona. Sponsor: Ministry of Science and Innovation [Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación]. Spain.
2019
Postdoctoral contract Sara Borrell at Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute – IDIBELL. Sponsor: Spanish National Institutes of Health Carlos III [Instituto de Salud Carlos III]. Spain.
Co-PI (with Maria Varkanitsa) Project: White matter hyperintesities and brain atrophy as predictors of response to language treatment in aphasia. Funding: Dudley Allen Sargent Research Fund - Boston University, United States.
2018
Saffran student scholar travel award. Sponsor: Eleanor M. Saffran Center for Cognitive Neuroscience/ Temple University, Philadelphia, PI, USA.
Third place group award on pitch competition at the big ideas session of the International Max Planck Research School for the Language Sciences conference. Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
2017
Society for the Neurobiology of Language travel award. Sponsor: Society for the Neurobiology of Language. Baltimore, MD, USA.
2016
Cum Laude recognition for doctoral dissertation: Speech segmentation and new word learning in aphasia. University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
Funding for short-term academic stays in foreign research centers. Research stay at the Braintrain Lab, Abo Akademi University, Turku, Finland. Sponsor: University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
2015
Funding for research training course: Introduction to clinical quantitative neuroimaging. Sponsor: Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute-IDIBELL, Barcelona, Spain.
2012
Predoctoral scholarship. Sponsor: Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute, Barcelona, Spain.
2011
Scholarship of collaboration with the UB Journal of Psychology, official journal of the faculty of psychology. Sponsor: University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
2010
Scholarship of collaboration with ongoing research projects at the Department of personality, psychological assessment and treatment. Sponsor: University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
2008
MAEC-AECID scholarship for foreign students to enroll postgraduate, doctoral and research programs. Sponsor: Spanish Agency of Cooperation for International Development.
Teaching experience
2023-present. Clinical Linguistics.
Invited lecturer. International School on Psycholinguistics, Neurolinguistics and Clinical Linguistics. Faculty of philosophy, University of Novi Sad (Novi Sad, Serbia).
2021-present. Memory and representation.
Lecturer. Graduate school in Psychology. Faculty of Psychology. Universitat de Barcelona (Barcelona, Spain).
2021-present. Cognitive neuroscience.
Lecturer. Master in research in behavior and cognition. Faculty of psychology. Universitat de Barcelona (Barcelona, Spain).
2021-2022. Cross-disciplinary thematic focus for honours students.
Invited lecturer. Introductory interdisciplinary course for students in the Honors program at the University of Oslo. Department of Physics. University of Oslo (Oslo, Norway).
2017-2019. Cognitive and neural basis.
Invited lecturer. Master of science in speech and language pathology. College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences. Boston University (Boston, MA, USA).
Teaching accreditation for assistant and associate professor. Catalan University Quality Assurance Agency (AQU) Catalonia, Spain.
Join our research team
Our lab and research locations
Research under my mentoring is conducted in our lab, the Cognition and Brain Plasticity Unit (University of Barcelona & the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute - IDIBELL).
Research locations include:
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The University of Barcelona (Mundet Campus and Bellvitge Campus).
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Hospital Universitari de Bellvitge (neuropsychology unit).
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Other collaborating hospitals.
Current students
Belle Jacobs. Master program in Cognitive Science and Language. UB. Project: Discourse in aphasia.
Veerle Roukens. Scientific internship for master students at Leiden University Medical Center. Project: Exploring the impact of lifestyle Factors on cognitive and emotional functioning via small vessel disease biomarkers in healthy older adults and stroke patients.
Recruiting new students!
Would you like to work with me? I am currently accepting:
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Master and PhD students.
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Graduate and undergraduate research assistant volunteers.
Research projects (among others):
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Language and cognitive performance in Mild Cognitive Impairment.
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Cross-language interaccions in bilingual aphasia and dementia.
Announcements
Students from these programs (and others) are welcome to join:
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Research in behavior and cognition. University of Barcelona.
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Cognitive Science and Language (CCiL). University of Barcelona.
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Master en Neuropsicología y Neurología de la Conducta. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.
Get in Touch
Cognition and Brain Plasticity Unit
Department of Cognition, Development and Educational Psychology
Institute of Neurosciences| University of Barcelona
Pg. de la Vall d'Hebron, 171
08035 Barcelona, Spain