Rachael Harrington

M.A. in Speech-Language Pathology, The George Washington University, 2011
M.S./Ph.D. in Neuroscience, Georgetown University, 2017

Neurorehabilitation

Research Interests

The overarching goal of my research is to design individualized intervention for post-stroke rehabilitation using non-invasive brain stimulation. I have previously proposed the STAC (Structural reserve, Task Attributes, Connectivity) model for non-invasive brain stimulation in the motor system (Harris-Love & Harrington, 2017). In this model, we suggest that there is no one-size-fits-all site for stimulation after stroke. Instead, the best site for stimulation is dependent on lesion size and location, the specific task to be targeted, and the connectivity of perilesional areas and homologous areas that may be available for vicariation. I intend to apply this model to the post-stroke reading (alexia) and language (aphasia) systems. My short-term goals are to understand the compensatory neurobiological mechanisms of the post-stroke reading system. I specifically wish to study how resting state connectivity and task-based activation during reading correlate with severity. Based on these results, I am developing a feasibility study to examine the effects of exciting and inhibiting different regions of the brain on reading speed and accuracy in these patients. Ultimately, I plan to pair individualized, site-specific stimulation with reading treatment in persons with post-stroke reading impairment. From these studies, I will build a model for non-invasive brain stimulation site selection that is dependent on severity, lesion location, functional activation, connectivity and remaining viable tissue.

Reading Studies Lab

I am clinically trained as a speech-language pathologist with an emphasis on rehabilitation of post-stroke aphasia. My doctoral work focused on neurorehabilitation of the post-stroke motor system with non-invasive brain stimulation. I have been published in Brain Stimulation, Frontiers in Neurology, Neuroscience Letters, and Neurorehabilitation Neural Repair. I was awarded the McDowell Award for Best Clinical Science from the American Society for Neurorehabilitation. I have received pre and postdoctoral funding from the National Institutes of Health and the American Heart Association.