Steven L. Small

Picture of Steven L. Small
Professor and Chair, Neurology
School of Medicine
Ph.D., M.D.
Phone: (714) 456-7352
Fax: (714) 456-1697
Email: small@uci.edu
University of California, Irvine
200 S Manchester Ave
Suite 206
Orange, CA 92868-3201
Research Interests
Neurobiology of Language, Neural Repair, Computational Neuroscience
Research Abstract
Our laboratory uses functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), high density electroencephalography (hd-EEG), and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to study the organization of the normal human cerebral cortex and the changes that it undergoes after neurological injury, particularly stroke.
We focus particularly on speech, language, and hand motor function. In the study of normal adults, we have found that the language areas of the brain are more widely distributed than previously thought, extending to brain regions that are anatomically removed from those originally postulated by Broca, Wernicke, and Déjérine, and extending to both cerebral hemispheres. To characterize this distributed functional anatomy, we use multivariate mathematical modeling approaches across brain regions and methods of analyzing distributed population codes within regions. We have recently found that the comprehension of speech requires neural processing in areas thought to be primarily involved in production, and that the underlying mechanism is likely to include action simulation via the mirror neuron system. We have also determined that the circuits for higher-order language comprehension are highly integrated with those for encoding information into memory, and that activity in these circuits depends critically on the information value of what is heard.
In the motor system, we have found significant overlap in the neural circuits for kinetic motor imagery and overt execution of finger movements, but that when examining the circuit using multivariate distributed modeling, the interactions among cerebellar, parietal, and premotor (frontal) cortices on can be seen to differ significantly. In the study of expert motor performance, we recently demonstrated that professional athletes have a much more constrained and focused pattern of brain activation than novices, incorporating mainly primary and secondary motor cortices, without any significant limbic activation as found in novices.
In our studies of stroke recovery of speech, language, and hand motor function, we perform longitudinal behavioral testing and brain imaging during natural recovery and during treatment interventions. During natural recovery, we have shown that patients' performance improves and their pattern of brain activity changes, and that the hemisphere ipsilateral to the injury and the cerebellum contralateral to the injury play the major role in recovery. Various intervention studies are in progress, both for aphasia and hand motor recovery, and these studies aim to take advantage of the process of observation-execution matching, the human analogue to the macaque mirror neuron system, to improve function after stroke and the understand the brain mechanisms of recovery.
Publications
Bornkessel-Schlesewsky, I., Schlesewsky, M., Small, S. L., & Rauschecker, J. P. (2015). Neurobiological roots of language in primate audition: common computational properties. Trends in Cognitive Science, 19(3), 142-150.
Goldin-Meadow, S., Levine, S. C., Hedges, L. V., Huttenlocher, J., Raudenbush, S. W., & Small, S. L. (2014). New evidence about language and cognitive development based on a longitudinal study: hypotheses for intervention. American Psychologist, 69(6), 588-599.
Small, S. L., Buccino, G., & Solodkin, A. (2013). Brain repair after stroke--a novel neurological model. Nature Reviews Neurology, 9(12), 698-707.
Dick, A. S., Raja Beharelle, A., Solodkin, A., & Small, S. L. (2013). Interhemispheric functional connectivity following prenatal or perinatal brain injury predicts receptive language outcome. Journal of Neuroscience, 33(13), 5612-5625.
Cherney, L. R., Erickson, R. K., & Small, S. L. (2010). Epidural cortical stimulation as adjunctive treatment for non-fluent aphasia: preliminary findings. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, 81(9), 1014-1021.
Skipper, J. I., Goldin-Meadow, S., Nusbaum, H. C., & Small, S. L. (2009). Gestures orchestrate brain networks for language understanding. Current Biology, 19(8), 661-667.
Beilock, S. L., Lyons, I. M., Mattarella-Micke, A., Nusbaum, H. C., & Small, S. L. (2008). Sports experience changes the neural processing of action language. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 105(36), 13269-13273.
Hasson, U., Skipper, J. I., Nusbaum, H. C., & Small, S. L. (2007). Abstract coding of audiovisual speech: beyond sensory representation. Neuron, 56(6), 1116-1126.
Professional Societies
Society for Neuroscience
Organization for Human Brain Mapping
American Neurological Association
Society for the Neurobiology of Language
Other Experience
Graduate Programs
Neurobiology
Psychology
Last updated
07/19/2017