Rosemary Varley

Rosemary Varley is Professor of Acquired Language Disorders in Faculty of Brain Sciences/Division of Psychology & Language Sciences at UCL. Previous posts include Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Sheffield and a lectureship at Hong Kong University.

Her research interests are based around the cognitive neuroscience of speech and language. She has particular interest in impairments that occur in adulthood following brain injury, including post-stroke aphasia, apraxia of speech, and dementia. There are two strands to her current research: Exploring language processing from a usage-based perspective; Evaluation of the impact of profound language impairment on thought and reasoning in apparently non-linguistic domains.

A theme that runs across both strands is development of neuroscience-motivated interventions for speech and language impairments. She is co-author (with Sandra Whiteside) of the SWord software used in the treatment of apraxia of speech. She was awarded an ESRC Professorial Fellowship in 2006.

She has published research articles in major international journals such as Nature Reviews Neuroscience, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of USA, and Stroke. Her research is funded by government research councils and charities.

Key publications

Ibrahim, A., Cowell, P. E., & Varley, R. A. (2017). Word frequency predicts translation asymmetry. Journal of Memory and Language. doi:10.1016/j.jml.2017.02.001

Fedorenko, E., & Varley, R. (2016). Language and thought are not the same thing: evidence from neuroimaging and neurological patients. YEAR IN COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE, 1369, 132-153. doi:10.1111/nyas.13046

Varley, R., Cowell, P. E., Dyson, L., Inglis, L., Roper, A., & Whiteside, S. P. (2016). Self-Administered Computer Therapy for Apraxia of Speech: Two-Period Randomized Control Trial with Crossover. Stroke, 47(3), 822-828. doi:10.1161/STROKEAHA.115.011939

Zimmerer, VC; Cowell, PE; Varley, RA; (2014) Artificial grammar learning in individuals with severe aphasia. Neuropsychologia , 53 pp. 25-38. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2013.10.014.

Benn, Y., Zheng, Y., Wilkinson, I. D., Siegal, M., & Varley, R. (2012). Language in calculation: A core mechanism?. Neuropsychologia, 50(1), 1-10. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2011.09.045

Varley, R. (2011). Rethinking aphasia therapy: A neuroscience perspective. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 13(1), 11-20. doi:10.3109/17549507.2010.497561

Willems, R. M., Benn, Y., Hagoort, P., Toni, I., & Varley, R. (2011). Communicating without a functioning language system: Implications for the role of language in mentalizing. Neuropsychologia, 49(11), 3130-3135. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2011.07.023

Bek, J., Blades, M., Siegal, M., & Varley, R. (2010). Language and Spatial Reorientation: Evidence From Severe Aphasia. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning Memory and Cognition, 36(3), 646-658. doi:10.1037/a0018281

Varley, R. A., Klessinger, N. J. C., Romanowski, C. A. J., & Siegal, M. (2005). Agrammatic but numerate. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 102(9), 3519-3524. doi:10.1073/pnas.0407470102

Siegal, M., & Varley, R. (2002). Neural systems involved in 'theory of mind'. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 3(6), 463-471. doi:10.1038/nrn844

Varley, R., Siegal, M., & Want, S. C. (2001). Severe impairment in grammar does not preclude theory of mind. Neurocase, 7(6), 489-493.

Varley, R., & Whiteside, S. P. (2001). What is the underlying impairment in acquired apraxia of speech?. Aphasiology, 15(1), 39-49. doi:10.1080/02687040042000115

Varley, R., & Siegal, M. (2000). Evidence for cognition without grammar from causal reasoning and 'theory of mind' in an agrammatic aphasic patient. Current Biology, 10(12), 723-726. doi:10.1016/S0960-9822(00)00538-8