Rajani Sebastian, SLP
Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
Speech-Language Pathology
- Johns Hopkins School of Medicine Faculty
About Rajani Sebastian
Primary Academic Title
Assistant Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
Background
Rajani Sebastian, PhD., is a researcher and a speech-language pathologist specializing in adult communication disorders and recovery after stroke. Dr. Sebastian is also involved in the noninvasive brain stimulation program at the Johns Hopkins Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.
Dr. Sebastian’s research focuses on recovery from poststroke aphasia with particular interest in brain plasticity. Her dissertation research examined language recovery in stroke using functional neuroimaging. And her post-doctoral fellowship focused on studying longitudinal language recovery in stroke using multimodality brain imaging techniques and using noninvasive brain stimulation to augment language recovery in stroke.
Dr. Sebastian has co-authored numerous publications on the topics of poststroke aphasia, brain imaging and language processing. She is a primary investigator for an ongoing NIH/NIDCD-funded study of the effects of transcranial direct current stimulation on poststroke aphasia.
Clinical Trials Summary
Cerebellar Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation and Aphasia Treatment | NIH/NIDCD K99/R00 (PI: Sebastian, Rajani), 8/1/16-7/31/2021.
The goals of this grant are to understand the behavioral and neural effects of multiple consecutive cerebellar tDCS sessions coupled with naming therapy in stroke survivors with aphasia.
Research Interests
Aphasia recovery, Functional neuroimaging, Interventions to enhance language recovery after stroke, Neuromodulation
Google Scholar
Selected Publications
Sebastian R, Breining BL. Contributions of Neuroimaging to Understanding Language Deficits in Acute Stroke. Semin Speech Lang. 2018 Feb;39(1):66-78. doi: 10.1055/s-0037-1608854. Epub 2018 Jan 22. PMID: 29359306
Sebastian R, Saxena S, Tsapkini K, Faria AV, Long C, Wright A, Davis C, Tippett DC, Mourdoukoutas AP, Bikson M, Celnik P, Hillis AE. Cerebellar tDCS: A Novel Approach to Augment Language Treatment Post-stroke. Front Hum Neurosci. 2017 Jan 12;10:695. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2016.00695. eCollection 2016. PMID: 28127284
Sebastian R, Thompson CB, Wang NY, Wright A, Meyer A, Friedman RB, ... & Tippett DC. Patterns of decline in naming and semantic knowledge in primary progressive aphasia. Aphasiology, 2018, 32(9), 1010-1030.
Faroqi-Shah Y, Sebastian R, Woude AV. Neural representation of word categories is distinct in the temporal lobe: An activation likelihood analysis. Hum Brain Mapp. 2018 Aug 18. doi: 10.1002/hbm.24334. PMID: 30120847
Wright A, Tippett D, Saxena S, Sebastian R, Breining B, Faria A, Hillis AE. Leukoaraiosis is independently associated with naming outcome in poststroke aphasia. Neurology. 2018 Aug 7;91(6):e526-e532. doi: 10.1212/WNL.0000000000005945. Epub 2018 Jul 6. PMID: 29980639
Honors
- Communication Sciences and Disorders Scholarship, The University of Texas at Austin
- Participant, Lessons for Success, American Speech Language and Hearing Association, 1/1/17
- The University of Texas Continuing Fellowship, 1/1/08
Memberships
- American Speech Language and Hearing Association
- Academy of Aphasia
- The Organization for Human Brain Mapping
- Society for the Neurobiology of Language
Expertise
Education
UT Austin Dell Medical School
Graduate School, Communication Sciences and Disorders, PhD, 2010Board Certifications
Certificate of Clinical Competence in Speech-Language Pathology (CCC-SLP)
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), 2011Insurance
- Aetna
- CareFirst
- Cigna
- First Health
- Geisinger Health Plan
- HealthSmart/Accel
- Humana
- Johns Hopkins Health Plans
- MultiPlan
- Pennsylvania's Preferred Health Networks (PPHN)
- Point Comfort Underwriters
- Private Healthcare Systems (PHCS)
- UnitedHealthcare
- Veteran Affairs Community Care Network (Optum-VACCN)