Faculty & Staff

Gerry A. Stefanatos, D.Phil.

Gerry A. Stefanatos, D.Phil. is Chairman of the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He received his bachelor's degree in Psychology from McGill University in Montreal and his doctorate in Clinical Neuropsychology from the University of Oxford in England. While based at the MRC Neuropsychology Unit (situated in the Oxford University Department of Clinical Neurology), he developed a special interest in the problems of individuals with acquired aphasia and in the inexplicable failure to acquire language experienced by some children (Specific Language Impairment). In collaboration with colleagues at the University Laboratory of Physiology, he developed novel methods of recording brain electrical responses in humans to rapidly changing complex sounds. He applied this steady-state auditory evoked responses paradigm in studies directed to understanding the neurobiological basis of speech perception problems seen in developmental language disorders and some forms of acquired aphasia in children.

After a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Western Ontario, he taught at Trinity University and the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio. He then moved to Philadelphia to become an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the Medical College of Pennsylvania and Director of Neuropsychological Services at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children. In 1993, he accepted a position as an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia and began his own Center for Clinical and Developmental Neuropsychology. He then went on to pursue a research career as Director of the Cognitive Neurophysiology Laboratory at Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute and collaborated on functional neuroimaging studies with colleagues at the Center for Functional Neuroimaging at the University of Pennsylvania. He assumed the position as Chairman of the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Temple University in 2007.

TEACHING AREAS

Graduate Courses:
C5521. Language Disorders: The Pre-School Years
C8726. Child Language Disorders: School Age

RESEARCH AREAS
Dr. Stefanatos’ recent explorations of the nature and basis of neurogenic language disorders integrate neuropsychological/neurolinguistic approaches to the study of brain function with advanced functional neuroimaging techniques, such as brain electrical source localization and functional magnetic resonance imaging. His interdisciplinary work on acquired epileptiform aphasia and regressive autism resulted in passage of a congratulatory resolution (HR 307) (click here) by the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1997, in recognition of his scientific and clinical contributions. He has extended his work in this area to studies seeking to understand brain plasticity and the changes that accompany recovery from stroke and other cerebrovascular insults to the brain. Among the studies currently under way, he is examining the extent to which pharmacologic and behavioral interventions promote adaptive functional and structural changes in brain organization and enhance recovery of function.

Dr. Stefanatos has written numerous articles published in scientific journals and has authored several chapters in textbooks in the field of neuropsychology and cognitive neuroscience. These have covered conditions such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism, Asperger's disorder, developmental language disorder, and aphasia. His editorial responsibilities have included reviewing research papers for "Brain and Development, “Brain and Cognition, Neuropsychologia, Biological Psychiatry, Child Neuropsychology, Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, the Journal of Developmental and Learning Disorders, Neuropsychiatric Genetics, Neurocase, Clinical Neuropsychologist, and Journal of Neuropsychological Rehabilitation. He has also served on scientific review committees for the National Institute of Health.

Funding Sources

Dr Stefanatos has received funding from the National Institute on Deafness and Communicative Disorders, the National Institute of Child Health and Development, the Pennsylvania Department of Health and the Albert Einstein Society.

Selected Publications:

Stefanatos, G. A., Joe, W. Q., Aguirre, G. K., Detre, J. A., and Wetmore, G. Activation of human auditory cortex during speech perception: Effects of monaural, binaural, and dichotic presentation." To appear in Neuropsychologia, 2007.

Stefanatos GA, and  Baron, IS. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: A neuropsychological view towards DSM-V, Neuropsychological Review 17:5–38, 2007.

Swanson, J.M., Kinsbourne, M., Nigg, J., Lanphear, B., Stefanatos, G.A., Volkow, N., Taylor, E., Casey, B.J., Xavier Castellanos, F., and Wadhwa, P., Etiologic Subtypes of ADHD: Brain Imaging, Molecular Genetic and Environmental Factors and the Dopamine Hypothesis. Neuropsychology Review 17(1): 39-59, 2007.

Stefanatos, G.A., Braitman, L.E., and Madigan S. Fine grain temporal analysis in aphasia: Evidence from auditory gap detection. Neuropsychologia 45 1127–1133, 2007.

Ross, J.L., Stefanatos, G.A., and Roeltgen, D. Klinefelter Syndrome, In M. Mazzocco and J.L. Ross (Eds.), Contributions to Neurogenetic Developmental Disorders: Manifestation and Identification in Childhood. MIT Press: Cambridge MA. 2007.

Stefanatos, G.A., Gershkoff A., Madigan S. On pure word deafness, temporal processing and the left hemisphere. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 11:4 456-470, 2005.

Stefanatos, G.A., Gershkoff A., Madigan S. Computer-mediated tools for the investigation and rehabilitation of auditory and phonological processing in aphasia. Aphasiology, 19:10 955-964, 2005.

Stefanatos GA, Kinsbourne M, Wasserstein, J. Acquired epileptiform aphasia: a dimensional view of Landau-Kleffner syndrome and the relation to regressive autistic spectrum disorders. Child Neuropsychology 8(3),195-228, 2002.

Ross JL, Stefanatos GA, Kushner H, Zinn A, Bondy C, Roeltgen D.  Persistent cognitive deficits in adult women with Turner syndrome.  Neurology 2002; 58: 218-225.

Stefanatos, G.A., & Wasserstein, J. Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder as a right hemisphere syndrome: selective literature review and detailed neuropsychological case studies. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 931, 172-195, 2001.

Stefanatos, G.A., Foley, C., and Grover, W. and Doherty, B.J. (1997) Steady-state auditory evoked responses to pulsed frequency modulation in children. Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology, 104, 31-42.

Stefanatos, G.A., Grover, W., and Geller, E. (1995) Corticosteroid treatment of language regression in pervasive developmental disorder. Journal of the Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 34(8):1107-1111.

Stefanatos, G.A. and Musikoff, H. (1994) Specific neurocognitive deficit in de Lange syndrome. Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, 15(1), 39-43.

Stefanatos, G.A. (1993) Frequency modulation (FM) analysis in children with Landau-Kleffner syndrome (VAA). Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 682, 412-414.

Stefanatos, G.A., Green, G.G.R., and Ratcliff, G.G. (1989) Neurophysiological evidence of auditory channel anomalies in developmental dysphasia. Archives of Neurology, 46, 871-875.