Alexia (PDF)

Alex Leff, Reader in Cognitive Neurology and Honorary Consultant Neurologist, Institute of Neurology & National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, University College London, London, UK.

Alex's main clinical and academic interest is cognitive rehabilitation, especially in the field of acquired language disorders.

He sees his research role as continuing to develop mechanistic accounts of how acquired language disorders can be improved by different types of therapy, both pharmacological and behavioral. With an understanding of the neural mechanisms associated with recovery, he thinks that effective, rehabilitation-based interventions are more likely to be developed and translated into common clinical practice. He has an interest in acquired reading disorders and their rehabilitation and has developed several web-based rehabilitation tools to be used by therapists and patients. One (Read-Right) is for patients with hemianopic alexia. With his web-based projects he plans to make scientifically proven behavioral therapies available to suitable patients and their therapists.

Randi Starrfelt, Associate Professor in Neuropsychology, Department of Psychology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Randi's main clinical and academic interest is in acquired disorders of language and visual recognition.  

In her research, she uses methods from experimental psychology and psychophysics to investigate neuropsychological deficits in reading and visual recognition. She is interested in reading in particular, as this is an acquired skill which is learned by instruction, and yet a skill that can be quite selectively affected by brain injury. She thinks that understanding the cerebral basis of reading and written word recognition, how it develops and how it can break down, can potentially inform us about the more general question of how learning can influence the functional organization of the brain.

From the reviews:

“The book covers various types of reading disorders, treatment recommendations, theoretical paradigms for models of adult reading, and possible causative lesions underlying these disorders. … There are numerous figures that help clarify the text. With its discussion of both theory and treatment, this is a useful book. It is a great resource for neuropsychologists, neurologists, reading specialists, and speech therapists.” (Gary B. Kaniuk, Doody’s Book Reviews, February, 2014)