Rajani Sebastian, PhD, SLP
Physical Medicine and RehabilitationSpeech-Language Pathology
Highlights
Johns Hopkins Affiliations:
- Johns Hopkins School of Medicine Faculty
About Rajani Sebastian
Primary Academic Title
Associate Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
Background
Rajani Sebastian, PhD., is a neurorehabilitation 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 developing innovative and effective treatments for speech and language deficits in individuals with aphasia after a stroke. She uses a combination of multimodality brain imaging techniques, non-invasive brain stimulation, and behavioral assessments to investigate how language recovers after brain injury.
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 clinical trial on the effects of transcranial direct current stimulation on poststroke aphasia.
Clinical Trials Summary
Cerebellar Stimulation for Aphasia Rehabilitation (CeSAR)
ClinicalTrials.gov ID NCT05093673
NIH/NIDCD R01 (PI: Sebastian, Rajani), 9/1/22-8/31/2027.
The optimal site of neuromodulation for post-stroke aphasia has yet to be established. This study will investigate whether multiple sessions of cerebellar transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) boosts language therapy in helping people recover from aphasia as well as predict who is likely to respond to cerebellar tDCS.
Find a Clinical Trial
View all trials by this principal investigator.
Research Interests
Aphasia recovery, Functional neuroimaging, Interventions to enhance language recovery after stroke, Neuromodulation
Google Scholar - Publications
Research Gate - Research Profile
Selected Publications
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Stilling J, Kim JH, Cust S, Keser Z, Murter JL, Tippet DC, Hillis AE, Sebastian R. Cerebello-Cerebral Resting-State Functional Connectivity in Poststroke Aphasia. Brain connectivity. 2025 Feb 1;15(1):40-54.
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Keser Z, Meier EL, Stockbridge MD, Breining BL, Hillis AE, Sebastian R. Corticocerebellar white matter integrity is related to naming outcome in post-stroke aphasia. Neurobiology of Language. 2023 Jul 20;4(3):404-19.
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Sebastian R, Cherry-Allen KM, Pruski A, Sinkowitz J, Stilling J, Anaya MA, Cantarero G, Celnik PA. Clinical implementation of noninvasive brain stimulation in an outpatient neurorehabilitation program. American Journal of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation. 2023 Feb 1;102(2S):S79-84.
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Sheppard SM, Sebastian R. Diagnosing and managing post-stroke aphasia. Expert review of neurotherapeutics. 2021 Feb 1;21(2):221-34.
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Sebastian R, Kim JH, Brenowitz R, Tippett DC, Desmond JE, Celnik PA, Hillis AE. Cerebellar neuromodulation improves naming in post-stroke aphasia. Brain communications. 2020;2(2):fcaa179.
Memberships
- American Speech Language and Hearing Association
- Academy of Aphasia
- Society for the Neurobiology of Language
Additional Training
- Research Fellowship: Johns Hopkins University, Cognitive Neurology, 2018
Expertise
Education
- Graduate School: University of Texas at Austin, Communication Sciences and Disorders, PhD, 2010
Board Certifications
- Certificate of Clinical Competence in Speech-Language Pathology (CCC-SLP): American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), 2011
Insurance
- 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)