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Argye Elizabeth Hillis

Argye Elizabeth Hillis, MD

Vascular Neurology

Accepting New Patients

Highlights

Age Groups Seen

  • Young Adult 18-25
  • Adult 26-64
  • Older Adult 65+

Languages

  • English

Gender

Female

Johns Hopkins Affiliations:

  • Johns Hopkins School of Medicine Faculty

About Argye Elizabeth Hillis

Professional Titles

  • Director, Center of Excellence in Stroke Detection and Diagnosis, Sheikh Khalifa Stroke Institute
  • Sheikh Khalifa Stroke Institute Professor of Acute Stroke Diagnoses and Management
  • Director, Cerebrovascular Division of Neurology
  • Executive Vice Chair, Department of Neurology

Primary Academic Title

Professor of Neurology

Johns Hopkins Physician

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Background

Dr. Argye Hillis is a professor of Neurology, with joint faculty appointments in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and in Cognitive Science. She is also the Sheikh Khalifa Stroke Institute Professor of Acute Stroke Diagnoses and Management.

Prior to medical training and neurology residency, Dr. Hillis worked as a speech-language pathologist, and conducted clinical research focusing on understanding and treating aphasia and hemispatial neglect. She has brought these areas of experience to impact on her clinical research in neurology, which involves cognitive and neuroimaging studies of aphasia and hemispatial neglect due to acute stroke and focal dementias. She has published extensively on these topics in journals and textbooks.

Dr. Hillis is Associate Editor of Stroke and has served as Associate editor of Brain, Annals of Neurology, Aphasiology, American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, Neurocase, Cognitive Neuropsychology, and Language and Cognitive Processes and served as co-Editor and Chief of Behavioral Neurology.

Dr. Hillis serves as the Executive Vice Chair of the Department of Neurology and the Director of the Cerebrovascular Division of Neurology at Johns Hopkins.

Centers and Institutes

Cerebrovascular Center

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Recent News Articles and Media Coverage

  • Argye Hillis Among Stoke Researchers Awarded $11 Million NIH Grant Press Release (4/20/16)

    Dealing with the emotional aspects of stroke rehab, Philadelphia Inquirer (04/13/2014)

    Why You Get the Joke: Brain's Sarcasm Center Found, Live Science

Additional Academic Titles

Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

Research Interests

Cognitive Deficits and Recovery after Right Hemisphere Stroke, Language Recovery After Stroke, Stroke Cognitive Outcome and Recovery (SCORE)

Lab Website

S.C.O.R.E. Lab - Lab Website

  • The mission of the Stroke Cognitive Outcomes and Recovery (S.C.O.R.E.) Lab is to enhance knowledge of brain mechanisms that allow people recover language, empathy, and other cognitive and communicative functions after stroke, and to improve ways to facilitate recovery of these functions after stroke. We also seek to improve the understanding of neurobiology of primary progressive aphasia., and how to enhance communication in people with this group of clinical syndromes.

Research Summary

Following a stroke, an individual may experience speech, language, cognitive, or emotional problems. Dr. Hillis’ current research aims to improve the understanding of how language and other cognitive functions are represented and carried out in the brain, how they recover after injury, and how understanding these processes can contribute to evaluation and treatment of stroke and dementia. Specifically, current research studies include the following:

  • Stroke Cognitive Outcome and Recovery (SCORE)
  • Language Recovery After Stroke
  • Cognitive Deficits and Recovery after Right Hemisphere Stroke

Dr. Hillis' current research combines longitudinal task-related and task-free functional imaging and structural imaging from the acute stage of stroke through the first year of recovery, with detailed cognitive and language assessments to improve our understanding how language and other cognitive functions recover after stroke. Her other avenue of research involves novel treatment studies and longitudinal imaging and language studies of Primary Progressive Aphasia. She has published extensively on these topics in journals and textbooks.

Selected Publications

  • SELECTED PUBLICATIONS (from >150 total)

    Hillis, A.E. (1989). Efficacy and generalization of treatment for aphasic naming errors. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 70, 632-636.

    Caramazza, A. & Hillis, A.E. (1991). Lexical organization of nouns and verbs in the brain. Nature, 349,788-90.

    Hillis, A.E. & Caramazza, A. (1991). Category-specific naming and comprehension impairment: A double dissociation. Brain, 114, 2081-2094.

    Hillis, A.E. & Caramazza, A. (1995). Cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying visual and semantic processing. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 7, 457-478.

    Hillis, A.E. & Caramazza, A. (1995). The representation of grammatical categories of words in the brain. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 7, 396-407.

    Hillis, A.E., Boatman, D., Hart, J. & Gordon, B. (1999). Making sense out of jargon: a neurolinguistic and computational account of jargon aphasia. Neurology, 53, 1813-1824.

    Hillis, A.E., Wityk, R.J., Tuffiash, E., Beauchamp, N.J., Jacobs, M.A., Barker, P.B., Selnes, O.A. (2001). Hypoperfusion of Wernickes area predicts severity of semantic deficit in acute stroke. Annals of Neurology, 50, 561-566.

    Hillis, A.E., Wityk, R.J., Barker, P.B., Beauchamp, N.J., Gailloud, P., Murphy, K., Cooper, O., Metter, E.J. (2002). Subcortical aphasia and neglect in acute stroke: the role of cortical hypoperfusion, Brain,125, 1094-1104.

    Hillis, A.E., Tuffiash, E. & Caramazza, A. (2002). Modality specific deterioration in oral naming of verbs. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 14, 1099-1108.

    Hillis, A.E., Wityk, R., Barker, P.B., Caramazza, A. (2003). Neural regions essential for writing verbs. Nature Neuroscience, 6, 19-20.

    Hillis, A.E., Oh, S., Ken, L. (2004). Deterioration of naming nouns versus verbs in primary progressive aphasia. Annals of Neurology, 55, 268-275.

    Hillis, A.E., Work, M., Breese, E.L., Barker, P.B., Jacobs, M.A. & Maurer, K. (2004). Re-examining the brain regions crucial for orchestrating speech articulation. Brain, 127, 1479-1487.

    Hillis, A.E., Newhart, M., Heidler, J., Barker, P.B., Herskovits, E., and Degaonkar, M. (2005). The roles of the visual word form area in reading. NeuroImage, 24, 548-559.

    Reineck, L., Agarwal, S. & Hillis, A.E. (2005). The diffusion-clinical mismatch predicts early language recovery in acute stroke. Neurology, 64, 828-833.

    Hillis, A.E., Newhart, M., Heidler, J., Barker, P.B., Degaonkar, M. (2005). Anatomy of spatial attention: insights from perfusion imaging and hemispatial neglect in acute stroke. Journal of Neuroscience, 25, 3161-7.

    Charles, R. & Hillis, A.E. (2005). Posterior Cortical Atrophy: clinical presentation and cognitive deficits compared to Alzheimers Disease. Behavioural Neurology, 16, 15-23.

    Hillis, A.E., Heidler-Gary, J., Newhart, M., Chang, S., Ken, L. & Bak, T. (2006). Naming and comprehension in primary progressive aphasia: the influence of grammatical word class. Aphasiology, 20, 246-256.

    Newhart, M., Ken, L., Kleinman, J.T., Heidler-Gary, J., & Hillis, A.E. (2007). Neural networks essential for naming and word comprehension. Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology, 20, 25-30.

    DeLeon, J., Gottesman, R.F., Kleinman, J.T., Newhart, M., Davis, C., Lee, A., Hillis, A.E. (2007) Neural regions essential for distinct cognitive processes underlying picture naming. Brain, 130, 1408-22.

    Heidler-Gary, J. & Hillis, A.E. (2007). Distinctions between the dementia in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis with Frontotemporal Dementia and the dementia of Alzheimer''s Disease. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.

    Philipose, L.E., Gottesman, R.F., Newhart, M.; Kleinman, J.T.; Herskovits, E.H.; Pawlak, M.A., Marsh, E.B.; Davis, C.; Heidler-Gary, J.; Hillis, A.E. (2008). Neural regions essential for reading and spelling of words and pseudowords. Annals of Neurology. 481-492.

    Cloutman, L., Gottesman, R., Chaudhry, P., Davis, C., Kleinman, J.T., Pawlak, M., Herskovits, E.H., Kannan, V., Lee, A., Newhart, M., Heidler-Gary, J., Hillis, A.E. (2008)Where (in the brain) do semantic errors come from? Cortex. [Epub ahead of print]

    Medina, J., Kannan, V., Pawlak, M., Kleinman, J.T., Newhart, M., Davis, C., Heidler-Gary J.E., Herskovits,
    E.H., Hillis, A.E. (2008) Neural substrates of visuospatial processing in distinct reference frames: evidence from unilateral spatial neglect. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. [Epub ahead of print].

    Cloutman, L., Gingis, L., Newhart, M., Davis, C., Heidler-Gary, J., Crinion, J., Hillis, A.E. (in press). A neural
    network critical for spelling. Annals of Neurology.

Honors

  • Alpha Omega Alpha
  • Phi Beta Kappa
  • Research Fellow, National Stroke Association
  • Fellow, American Heart Association
  • Fellow, American Stroke Association
  • Derek Denny-Brown Neurological Scholar Award, American Neurological Association
  • Norman Geschwind Award in Behavioral Neurology, American Academy of Neurology
  • Baltimore Top Docs 2015, Baltimore Magazine, 1/1/15
  • Best Doctors in America, 1/1/14

Memberships

  • Academy of Aphasia
  • American Academy of Neurology, Section on Behavioral Neurology
  • American Heart Association Stroke Council, Fellow;Abstract Reviewer for the International Stroke Conference (2003-2007); Scientific Session Chair, 2005, 2006
  • American Neurological Association, Scientific Program Committee (2004-2006)
  • Clinical Aphasiology Conference, Program committee 1985, 1992; Program Chair 2003; Conference Chair 2004; Steering Committee (2003-present)
  • Faculty 1000 Medicine, Evaluation Board
  • Society for Neuroscience
  • World Federation of Neurology- Research Group on Aphasia and Cognitive Disorders, Chair, 2004-2008
  • American Speech Language Association,

    Advances in Diagnosis, Treatment, and Prognosis of Primary Progressive Aphasia

Locations

  1. Levi Watkins, Jr., M.D., Outpatient Center
  2. Johns Hopkins Health Care & Surgery Center - Green Spring Station, Lutherville
    • 10753 Falls Road, Pavilion II STE 115, Lutherville, MD 21093
    • Get Directions

Expertise

Education

  • Residency: Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Neurology, 1999
  • Medical Education: Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Medicine, MD, 1995

Board Certifications

  • Neurology: American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, 2001

Insurance

Please contact the location directly to confirm your health plan is accepted.
Search plans
  • Aetna
  • CareFirst
  • Cigna
  • First Health
  • Geisinger Health Plan
  • HealthSmart/Accel
  • Johns Hopkins Health Plans
  • MultiPlan
  • Pennsylvania's Preferred Health Networks (PPHN)
  • Point Comfort Underwriters
  • Private Healthcare Systems (PHCS)
  • Veteran Affairs Community Care Network (Optum-VACCN)

Ratings & Reviews

5 out of 5

61 ratings, 26 reviews

The Patient Rating score is an average of all responses to physician related questions on the national CG-CAHPS Medical Practice patient experience survey through Press Ganey. Responses are measured on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the best score. Comments are also gathered from our CG-CAHPS Medical Practice Survey through Press Ganey and displayed in their entirety. Patients are de-identified for confidentiality and patient privacy.

Overall Rating by Patient
Provider Listened Carefully
Provider Explained Things Clearly
Provider Knew Medical History
Provider Showed Respect
Provider Spent Enough Time
Search reviews
    5 out of 5 stars
    Reviewed on 1/15/2026

    Dr Hillis is superb! She was so thorough, patient, and reassuring. I'm so grateful.

    5 out of 5 stars
    Reviewed on 1/3/2026

    Argye Hillis is my provider and she is fantastic .....she is thorough and takes time with me.

    5 out of 5 stars
    Reviewed on 1/2/2026

    Dr. Hillis is an excellent physician

    5 out of 5 stars
    Reviewed on 1/2/2026

    Great

    5 out of 5 stars
    Reviewed on 12/11/2025

    All good.

    5 out of 5 stars
    Reviewed on 12/5/2025

    Dr Hillis is a very compassionate doctor. But, it's extremely hard to get an appointment.

    5 out of 5 stars
    Reviewed on 12/5/2025

    Expert in Speech challenges which I have. Dr. Hillis is exceptional and valued by me.

    5 out of 5 stars
    Reviewed on 11/15/2025

    Absolutely love her!! She is so patient, knowledgeable, takes time with her patients and listens.

    5 out of 5 stars
    Reviewed on 11/7/2025

    We love, Dr. Hillis. She is knowledgeable, kind, patient, reassuring, and best of all very available. We would recommend her to anyone in need of a neurologist.

    5 out of 5 stars
    Reviewed on 10/17/2025

    Dr Hillis was instrumental in diagnosing my sister with PPA. We had been to several neurologists who did not understand what was impacting my sister's speech. Dr Hillis clinical expertise and exemplary care in listening and responding to concerns. I wrote messages to Dr Hillis prior to my sister's appointment. She responded immediately to all my questions. She addressed all our concerns & provided important information about the progression of PPA and communication strategies as my sister is losing speech.

    5 out of 5 stars
    Reviewed on 10/3/2025

    Dr was kind & professional. Answered all questions.

    5 out of 5 stars
    Reviewed on 9/25/2025

    Dr Hillis is stellar in every way-professional, knowledgeable, kind, effective communicator as examples. Also her secretary [staff] was most helpful.

    5 out of 5 stars
    Reviewed on 9/11/2025

    Outstanding.

    5 out of 5 stars
    Reviewed on 8/27/2025

    Dr. Hillis gave me a Video visit to see me quicker , and had me do some speech exercises over my video visit.

    5 out of 5 stars
    Reviewed on 8/20/2025

    Dr. Hillis was excellent

    5 out of 5 stars
    Reviewed on 8/14/2025

    Dr Hillis is an exceptional doctor - incredibly knowledgeable, compassionate and leaves no stone unturned. Simply the best.

    5 out of 5 stars
    Reviewed on 8/11/2025

    Dr. Hillis is one of the best doctors I have worked with to care for my mother.

    5 out of 5 stars
    Reviewed on 7/29/2025

    Very clear instructions and very understanding!

    5 out of 5 stars
    Reviewed on 7/25/2025

    She was amazing.

    5 out of 5 stars
    Reviewed on 7/25/2025

    Dr Hillis is FANTASTIC!!

    5 out of 5 stars
    Reviewed on 6/20/2025

    Dr.Hillis is a great lady

    5 out of 5 stars
    Reviewed on 6/16/2025

    Outstanding doctor, empathy and urgency noteworthy

    5 out of 5 stars
    Reviewed on 6/6/2025

    Dr Hillis took time to talk to me about my concern, she was very empathetic, friendly and explained everything concisely. An extremely pleasant visit, one of the BEST i have ever had.

    5 out of 5 stars
    Reviewed on 6/4/2025

    Excellent in all ways

    5 out of 5 stars
    Reviewed on 5/2/2025

    Great and very helpful!

    5 out of 5 stars
    Reviewed on 4/27/2025

    Dr. Hillis listens well and asks you important questions.