Leading the Vanguard: Katherine Aboud

Katherine Aboud smiling

Vanderbilt Kennedy Center (VKC) member Katherine Aboud, Ph.D., is a research assistant professor of Special Education. Her current research focuses on improving reading and learning in adults with and without learning differences.

In the interview below, Aboud shares what inspires her research in developmental disabilities, what she has learned through her work, and how membership with the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center helps her achieve her goals.

Tell me about your attraction to developmental disabilities research. Do you have a personal connection to disability?

During my master’s program in Poetry, I was fascinated by the complex cognitive processes required to produce and comprehend language. At the same time, I was teaching university courses on reading and writing. I was struck by the difficulties faced by many students when they worked with written language, as well as by the resilience often shown in the face of these difficulties. These experiences raised a lot of interesting questions: How does the brain produce and comprehend written language? Why do language and reading processes sometimes break down during comprehension? How can these processes get back on track?

During my subsequent positions at the National Institute of Health (NIH) and then in Vanderbilt’s Educational Neuroscience Ph.D. program, I underwent interdisciplinary training focused on brain imaging and reading disabilities. This training raised my awareness of the huge societal need for effective reading interventions in adults. I learned that around 43 million adults in the U.S. cannot comprehend a basic passage. I learned that poor reading comprehension is strongly linked to multiple dimensions of long-term health outcomes, and that, despite the prevalence of poor adult reading, there have been no significant reading comprehension gains in the U.S. for 30 years. Additionally, recent breakthroughs in brain imaging and non-invasive brain stimulation provide potential avenues in which to fundamentally advance our treatment of adult reading difficulties. This led to the primary motivational question for our lab, the Neural Enhancement of Learning Lab (NELL): How can we use cutting-edge, brain-based technologies to help adults better comprehend and learn from texts?

What are your current research interests and what problems or challenges does it address?

NELL aims to improve reading and learning in adults with and without learning differences. Our team does this using brain imaging, behavioral reading measures/intervention, and non-invasive brain stimulation. Our goals are to, 1, identify brain networks that support reading and learning from texts using high-resolution brain imaging; 2, characterize how these brain processes are different for individuals with reading and learning differences; and 3, utilize brain-based and behavioral interventions to enhance reading ability and learning from texts.

Do you have a story about a research participant or a breakthrough that illustrates the impact of this work?

While in the early stages, we have some exciting findings in our non-invasive brain stimulation research. The non-invasive brain stimulation approach applies weak electrical current to the head to encourage brain areas to better communicate with each other. Our pilot findings show that 6 out of 8 readers had stimulation-related improvement in learning new medical facts, with a range of 5- to 42-percent improvement compared to their factual learning during a control session. This includes one participant who showed a gain of 61 new medical facts compared to their non-stimulation control in one session. We are really excited to continue this investigation in our two primary research projects. The first is an NIH-funded clinical trial that will use non-invasive brain stimulation and behavioral reading intervention to treat reading difficulties in adults. The second is an Army-funded project that examines individualized non-invasive brain stimulation to enhance learning new information. We are fortunate to have amazing resources and collaborators at the VKC, as well as at the Vanderbilt Institute of Imaging Science, Vanderbilt Brain Institute, and Vanderbilt’s Soldier-Inspired Innovation Incubator that support these efforts.

What are your reasons for becoming a VKC Member? How does the VKC enhance the work you do?

The VKC has incredible resources for investigators. For us, the VKC has provided access to cutting-edge equipment for non-invasive brain stimulation and electroencephalography (EEG), as well as ongoing support for data collection. I always know that, if I get stuck on a research question, whether it’s study design or statistics, I can work with experts in the VKC’s scientific cores or another VKC member and get a first-class response. The VKC offers a community of thoughtful peers and training resources to make sure that a research study can progress in the best possible way.

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