E. Rochon, Ph.D.

Background:
Dr. Rochon obtained her Ph.D. in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at McGill University, where her doctoral dissertation was on sentence comprehension impairments in Alzheimer’s Disease. She subsequently completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute, Moss Rehab Hospital, Philadelphia, PA.., where she worked with Dr. Myrna Schwartz and her colleagues. At Moss, she continued her studies of language comprehension impairments in Alzheimer’s Disease, in addition to working on a large project designed to evaluate a new treatment ("mapping therapy") for nonfluent aphasic patients. Previous to joining the Department of Speech-Language Pathology at the University of Toronto, Dr. Rochon was Silverman Scientist in the Kunin-Lunenfeld Clinical Research Unit and the Department of Communication Disorders at Baycrest in Toronto. Dr. Rochon is also a Senior Scientist and currently Team Leader of the Communication Research Team at Toronto Rehab.

Professional Interest:
Dr. Rochon’s research and teaching interests relate to the theory, assessment and treatment of aphasia, dementia and related disorders. Research interests lie in identifying the nature and components of linguistic and cognitive impairments subsequent to brain damage, and in developing new treatment approaches for aphasic language impairments. In addition, she is interested in language processes in normal aging.

Current Research:
Ongoing studies in Dr. Rochon’s lab are designed to better characterize the nature and extent of language comprehension and production impairments in Alzheimer’s disease and primary progressive aphasia. Other work involves the development and the assessment of new treatments for language impairments for patients who have had strokes. Research projects are funded by the Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR) the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada (HSFC).

Recent Publications:

Cupit, J., Rochon, E., Leonard, C., Laird, L. (in press). Social validation as a measure of improvement after aphasia treatment: its usefulness and influencing factors. Aphasiology.

Sorin-Peters, R., McGilton, K.S., Rochon, E. (in press). The development and evaluation of a communication training program for nurses working with persons with aphasia/stroke in a long-term care institution. Aphasiology.

Egan, M., Bérubé, D., Racine, G., Leonard, C., Rochon, E. (2010). Methods to enhance communication between individuals with Alzheimer’s disease and their caregivers; A systematic review. International Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.

Jokel, R., Rochon, E., Anderson, N. (2010). Errorless learning of computer-generated words in a patient with semantic dementia. Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, 20 (1), 16-41.

McGilton, K.S., Sorin-Peters, R., Sidani, S., Rochon, E., Boscart, V., Fox, M. (2010).Focus on communication: Increasing the opportunity for successful staff-patient interactions. International Journal of Older People Nursing, online version, 1-12.

Rochon, E., Leonard, C., Burianova, H., Laird, L., Soros, P., Graham,S., Grady, C. (2010). Neural changes after phonological treatment for anomia: An fMRI study. Brain and Language, 114 (3), 164–179.

Jokel, R., Cupit, J., Rochon, E., Leonard, C. (2009). Re-learning lost vocabulary in nonfluent progressive aphasia with MossTalk Words. Aphasiology, 23(2), 175-191.

Leonard, C., Rochon, E., Laird, L. (2008). Treating naming impairments in aphasia: Findings from a phonological components analysis treatment. Aphasiology,22(9), 923-947.

Kavé, G., Leonard, C., Cupit, J., Rochon, E. (2007). Structurally well-formed narrative production in the face of severe conceptual deterioration: A longitudinal case study of a woman with semantic dementia. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 20,161-177.

Jokel, R., Rochon, E., & Leonard, C. (2006). Treating anomia in semantic dementia: Improvement, maintenance, or both? Neuropsychological Rehabilitation,16, 241-256.

Rochon, E., Laird, L., Bose, A., Scofield, J. (2005). Mapping Therapy for sentence production impairments in nonfluent aphasia.  Neuropsychological Rehabilitation,15, 1-36.

Rochon, E., Kavé, G., Cupit, J., Jokel, R., Winocur, G. (2004).  Sentence comprehension in semantic dementia: A longitudinal case study.  Cognitive Neuropsychology,21, 317-330. 

Rochon, E., Reichman, S. (2004). A modular treatment for sentence processing impairments: Sentence comprehension. Journal of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology,28, 25-33.
 
Rochon, E., Saffran, E.M., Berndt, R.S., Schwartz, M.F. (2000). Quantitative analysis of aphasic sentence production: Further development and new data. Brain and Language, 72, 193-218.

Berndt, R.S., Wayland, S., Rochon, E., Saffran, E., Schwartz, M. (2000). Quantitative production analysis: A training manual for the analysis of aphasic sentence production. Hove, U.K.: Psychology Press.

Rochon, E., Waters, G.S., Caplan, D. (2000). The relationship between measures of working memory and sentence comprehension in patients with Alzheimer's disease. Journal of Speech, Hearing and Language Research, 43(2), 395-413.