Faculty & Staff

Nadine Martin, Ph.D., CCC-SLP

Nadine Martin, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Temple University. She received her B.A. from Hofstra University in 1974 and her M.Ed degree in Speech and Language Pathology from Northeastern University in 1975. She started working with Dr. Eleanor M. Saffran at the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience in the Department of Neurology at Temple University in 1982 and then completed her Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology at Temple University in 1987. She became an Assistant Professor of Neurology (Research) in 1991 and then Associate Professor of Neurology (Research) at Temple University School of Medicine in 1997. Dr. Martin is currently serves as the Director of the newly dedicated Eleanor M. Saffran Center for Cognitive Neuroscience in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders.

Dr. Martin’s research focuses on the relationship between word processing and short-term memory and the implications for rehabilitation of word retrieval disorders. Within these domains, she conducts both theoretical and treatment-oriented investigations. A primary theoretical interest concerns the architecture of lexical retrieval processes and their relation to verbal STM processes. Through the study of speech errors of normal and aphasic populations, she has sought empirical evidence and corroborating data from computational modeling studies to support a model of lexical retrieval that assumes interaction of semantic and phonological processes over the time course of lexical retrieval (e.g., Dell, 1986). Additionally, her studies investigating the relationship between word processing and short-term memory deficits in individuals with neurologically-based language impairment indicate a common mechanism underlying these deficits: the ability to maintain activation of semantic and phonological aspects of words. Depending on the severity of this activation maintenance deficit, it will result in a verbal short-term memory and aphasia (more severe cases) or verbal short-term memory without aphasia. This work, carried out in collaboration with the late Eleanor Saffran and Gary Dell (University of Illinois), has led to several new lines of research including the development of a computationally-instantiated cognitive model of word processing and short-term memory and studies of the effects of language impairment on learning (collaborators: Prahlad Gupta (University of Iowa), Gary Dell (University of Illinois) and Myrna Schwartz (Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute). In addition, Dr. Martin is collaborating with Jamie Reilly (University of Florida) on an extension of the short-term memory studies described above to individuals with progressive aphasia and dementia.
Her clinical research includes several studies that apply our theoretical work to the development of treatment protocols for aphasia. In collaboration with Matti Laine and Kati Renvall (Åbo Akademi University, Finland) and Ruth Fink (Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute), she is investigating the effects of massed priming in combination with semantic and phonological context to improve word retrieval in anomia. A critical finding from this research is that immediate interfering effects on naming attributed to massed priming of words lead to a short-term facilitation of word retrieval. In collaboration with research associates at Temple, Francine Kohen and Michelene Kalinyak-Fliszar, Jamie Reilly (University of Florida, Steve Majerus (University of Liege, Belgium) and Monica Koenig-Bruhin (Spitalzentrum Biel, Switzerland, she is testing a treatment program that targets the short-term memory impairment in aphasia directly, with the intent that this treatment will benefit both short-term memory and language function. Additionally, they have developed a diagnostic battery of language and short-term memory measures that will further define the relationship between these two abilities.

TEACHING AREAS
Human Neuroscience
Adult Language Disorders
Language and the Brain
Readings course in Neurogenic Language Disorders

Funding Sources
Dr. Martin’s research has been supported for 15 years through grants from the James S. McDonnell Foundation and the National Institute on Deafness and Communicative Disorders.

Selected Publications:

Martin, N & Saffran, E. M. (2002) The relationship of input and output phonology in single word processing: Evidence from aphasia. Aphasiology, 16, 107-150.

Cornelissen, K., Laine, M., Tarkiainen, A., Jarvensivu, T., Martin, N., & Salmelin, R. (2003).Adult Brain Plasticity revealed by treatment of anomia: an MEG study. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 15, 444-461.
Renvall, K., Laine, M. Laakso, M. & Martin, N. (2003). Anomia rehabilitation with contextual priming: A case study. Aphasiology, 17, 305-308
Saffran, E. M., Coslett, H. B., Martin, N. & Boronat, C. (2003). Access to knowledge from pictures but not words in a case of a patient with progressive fluent aphasia. Language and Cognitive Processes,18, 725-758.

Renvall, K., Laine, M., Hiltunen, J., Rinne, J., Kaasinen, V., Sipilä, H. Cornelissen, K., Martin, N. (2003). Naming multiple objects: Neural correlates as measured by positron emission tomography. Applied Neuropsychology 10, 224-233.

Cornelissen, K., Laine, M., Renvall, K., Sarinen, T., Martin, N., and Salmelin, R. (2004). Learning new names for new objects: Cortical effects as measured by magnetoencephalography. Brain and Language,89, 617-622.

Gupta, P. Lipinski, J. Lin, P.-H., Abbs, B., Aktunc, E., Martin, N. & Newman, R. (2004). Space Aliens and nonwords: Stimuli and software for investigating the learning of novel word-meaning pairs. Behavioral Research Methods, Instruments and Computers, 36, 699-703.

Martin, N. (2003). Cognitive neuropsychological evidence for common processes underlying generation and storage of language representations. Commentary on Ruchkin, Grafman, Corcoran and Berndt, “Working memory retention systems: A state of activated long-term memory.” Brain and Behavioral Sciences, 26 (6), 747-748.

Martin, N. & Gupta, P. (2004). Exploring the relationship between word processing and verbal STM: Evidence from associations and dissociations. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 21, 213-228.

Martin, N. & Ayala, J. (2004). Measurements of auditory-verbal STM in aphasia: Effects of task, item and word processing impairment. Brain and Language, 89 ,464-483.

Martin, N., Fink, R., Laine, M. (2004). Treatment of word retrieval with contextual priming. Aphasiology, 18, 457-471.

Martin, N., Fink, R., Laine, M. & Ayala, J. (2004). Immediate and short-term effects of contextual priming on word retrieval. Aphasiology, 18, 867-898.

Martin, N. (2004). Comments on Nickels, L. and Howard, D., “Dissociating effects of number of phonemes, number of syllables and syllable complexity on word production in aphasia: it’s the number of phonemes that counts.” Cognitive Neuropsychology, 21, 528-530.

Martin, N. & Dell, G. S. (2004). Perseverations and Anticipations in Aphasia: Primed intrusions from the past and future. Seminars in Speech and Language Pathology, 25, 349-362.

Reilly, J., Martin, N., & Grossman, M. (2005). Verbal learning in semantic dementia: Is repetition priming a useful strategy? Aphasiology, 19(3/4/5), 329-339.

Renvall, K., Laine, M., & Martin, N. (2005). Contextual priming in semantic anomia: A case study. Brain and Language, 95, 327-341.

Martin, N., Kohen, F.P., Schwartz, M.F. (2006). Assessment of the ability to process semantic and phonological aspects of words in aphasia: A multi-measurement approach. Aphasiology, 20, 2/3/4, 154-166.

Schwartz, M.F., Dell, G.S., Martin, N., Gahl, S., Sobel, P. (2006). A case series test of the two-step interactive model of lexical access: Evidence from picture naming. Journal of Memory and Language, 54, 228-264.

Martin, N., Fink, R., Renvall, K., & Laine, M. (2006). Effectiveness of contextual repetition priming treatments for anomia depends on intact access to semantics. Journal of International Neuropsychological Society, 12, 1-14.

Bowes K, Martin N (2007) Longitudinal study of reading and writing rehabilitation using a bigraph-biphone correspondence approach, Aphasiology 21 (6-8): 687-701.

Renvall K, Laine M, Martin N., (2007) Treatment of anomia with contextual priming: Exploration of a modified procedure with additional semantic and phonological tasks, Aphasiology, 21 (5): 499-527.

Raymer, A.M., Beeson, P., Holland, A., Maher, L.M., Martin, N., Murray, L., Rose, M., Thompson, C.K., Turkstra, L., Altmann, L., Boyle, M., Conway, T., Hula, W., Kearns, K., Kendall, D., Rapp, B., Simmons-Mackie, N., Gonzalez Rothi, L.J., Translational Research in Aphasia: From Neuroscience to Neurorehabilitation, Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research. (in press, 2007)