Welcome to the Communication and Memory Lab! The lab is directed by Melissa Duff and we are located at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

We study the role of memory in language use and social interaction and the consequences of memory disorders on language and communication. We also study long-term outcomes of individuals with traumatic brain injury and other forms of cognitive or memory impairment.

We combine neuropsychological, neuroimaging, and eye-tracking methods together with behavioral methods to study memory and language processing, how it breaks down in patients with memory disorders, and the factors that facilitate recovery and functional outcome following different forms of brain injury.

Our lab also houses and directs the Brain Injury Patient Registry. The Registry is a repository of demographic information, and state of the art neuropsychological, neuroanatomical, and outcome data from individuals with focal lesions and traumatic brain injury, which serves as a unique resource for conducting large-scale basic and translational research in the area of acquired brain injury.

Thank you for visiting our website. We invite you to become a participant in one of our studies, to take a look at our publications, and to find out about current work in the lab.