She tests patients' memory, use of language and perception to gain understanding about mental processes. Her research shows that some patients with short-term memory deficits cannot learn new words. In the future, that finding may affect therapy for some patients. NIH granted Martin the award based upon her past productivity, standing in the field and proposed future research. Her research is becoming widely cited, and the Claude Pepper Award confirms the judgment of those of us on the local scene that her work is both technically competent and conceptually pathbreaking.
Martin works with adult patients who are aphasics.
Aphasic refers to anyone who suffers from a language disorder after brain damage. When brain damage affects language, not all abilities are affected equally. For example, a patient may have an ability to understand the meaning of individual words but might have difficulty with the grammatical structure of sentences. Much of the research on normal subjects implies that if a patient had a severely reduced short-term memory, then that subject might have trouble linking different parts of a sentence and understanding the whole meaning. But, that is not necessarily true, said Martin, who has a female patient whose short-term memory capacity is essentially one word.