Thomas J. Grabowski, Jr., MD

Thomas J. Grabowski, Jr., MD is Professor of Neurology, Radiology, and Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Iowa. He is a neurologist whose research involves a synthesis of imaging technology and cognitive neuroscience, using imaging techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) to study the neural basis of language and other cognitive processes in health and disease. These imaging approaches can detect the structure of language related areas of the cerebral cortex, their interconnection, and their physiologic responses during cognitive tasks such as retrieving specific words.

The work of his Laboratory of Computational Neuroimaging has led to new insights into the role of the left temporal lobe in lexical processing and the connections between language and memory. Together with colleagues in the Division of Behavioral Neurology and Cognitive Neuroscience, he helps maintain the Iowa Cognitive Neuroscience Patient Registry, the world's largest and best characterized group of neurological research subjects with focal stable brain damage. Together with colleagues in Radiology and the College of Engineering, he develops and validates new imaging methods for application to clinical populations, with the overall goal of harnessing emerging technology for application to patients with neurologic disease.

A long-term goal of Dr. Grabowski's work is to develop sensitive new ways to detect, describe, and monitor treatment of diseases affecting language and the left temporal lobe, including Alzheimer disease and related conditions, stroke, and other neurological conditions.

fMRI demonstrates brain regions (red areas) which perform
neural work during the selection of words.