Member of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience
Office: Duke South Yellow Zone 4000, Durham, NC 27710
Campus Mail: DUMC Box 3805, Durham, NC 27710
Phone: 919-681-2279
Email: jamila.minga@duke.edu
Overview
Scientific Focus
The Minga Right Hemisphere Communication Lab is dedicated to understanding the communication impairments, particularly those concerning language production, that can occur following acquired damage to the right hemisphere after stroke. Dr. Minga co-developed the RHDBank database and protocol as a foundation for increasing scientific inquiry and understanding of language production after a right hemisphere stroke. We are dedicated to improving knowledge about specific hemispheric contributions to language as a basis for engineering population specific diagnostic and treatment approaches that will improve the quality of life of survivors, their loved ones, and caregivers. We are committed to accomplishing these goals with the support of survivors, community and educational partners.
Our goal is to engage in research that will:
- Identify reliable patterns of communication during structured and unstructured language production tasks for improved diagnostic outcomes.
- Contribute to the discovery and understanding of brain-behavior relationships for language production using neuroimaging.
- Facilitate client-centered and driven discussions with survivors of right hemisphere stroke community (survivors, family, friends, and support entities).
Selected Contributions
- RHDBank development (rhd.talkbank.org); the largest repository of language samples for the study of discourse after right hemisphere stroke
- Identified question-asking as an area of deficit after right hemisphere stroke
- Piloted treatment focused on enhancing awareness of communication challenges after a right hemisphere stroke
Key Collaborators
Lab Members
2019-2021 Clinical Research Coordinator
- Marcia Rodriguez M.SP., CCC-SLP
Former Speech-Language Pathology Student Research Assistants
- Alexandra "Lexie" Ortiz, Undergraduate
- Jada Elleby, MS
- Mallory Parke, MS
- Megan Hollembaek, MS
- Emily McGinn MS
- Joyah Morris MS
- Kayla Valentine, MS
- Taravia McLawhorn, MS
- Jennifer Nelthropp, CCC-SLP
- Julia Black, CCC-SLP
- Kaitlynne Julie Bryan, CCC-SLP
- Whitney Hewitt, CCC-SLP
- Juliet Bourgeois-Berwyn, CCC-SLP
- Olivia DeStefano, MS
- Stephanie Furimsky, CCC-SLP
- Samantha Tyson, CCC-SLP
- Leilani Burgess, CCC-SLP
- Sarah Stidham, CCC-SLP
- Ashton Wainright, CCC-SLP
- Frank Brown, CCC-SLP
- Traci Bright, CCC-SLP
- Sarah Baker, MS
- Sarah Allen, MS
- Zhaojing Liu, MS
News
Duke Today: Stroke Survivors’ Resilience Captured by Duke Clinician’s Documentary
DURHAM, NC -- There was a reason guests were handed a packet of tissue before entering the theatre.
Duke clinician and researcher Jamila Minga, Ph.D, CCC-SLP, knew that her debut documentary about the understudied communication disorder that can follow after right hemisphere brain damage, or RHD, was bound to stimulate everyone’s tear ducts.
Jamila Minga, Ph.D., CCC-SLP awarded funding by Fund to Retain Clinical Scientists supported by American Heart Association (AHA)
Jamila Minga, Ph.D., CCC-SLP was awarded funding by Fund to Retain Clinical Scientists supported by American Heart Association (AHA) at Duke to support
SCIENMAG: A person’s race influences question asking as much as their stroke history
DURHAM, NC — Strokes that occur on the right side of the brain can sometimes subtly impair social communication, which can be difficult for clinicians to assess.
But these impairments are a lot less subtle for the patients and their families, who often have their lives and livelihood upended, leading to significant life changes such as job loss and divorce.
Clinical researchers have developed a few diagnostic tools for right side, (right hemisphere) stroke survivors, but the tools have been largely based on data from White patients.
Contact
The Minga Right Hemisphere Communication (MRHC) Lab can be contacted via email at mingarhclab@duke.edu.