Steven Small, M.D., Ph.D. Professor School Medical School Department Neurology Biography Steven L. Small, Ph.D., M.D., Professor of Neurology, is the Ashbel Smith Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Texas at Dallas. Clinical Interests: As Dean of the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, Dr. Small aims to continue its upward trajectory by expanding and broadening research and education in neuroscience, psychology, and speech and hearing sciences, building partnerships with other educational, industrial, and philanthropic institutions in Dallas, particularly the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, and advancing the stature of the premier Carnegie Tier 1 research institution in Dallas-Fort Worth, the fourth largest metropolitan area in the United States. Research: As a scientist, Dr. Small has been a pioneer in understanding the anatomy and physiology of the human brain and its relation to function by direct investigation of human subjects, particularly related to language comprehension and production, and with an emphasis on distributed brain networks. This work has encompassed the study of normal adults and children, adults with neurological disease (especially stroke), and children with developmental impairments. Dr. Small's translational neurology research focuses on language recovery after stroke in both adults and children. Neurobiologically plausible models of human brain function are typically based on detailed animal models. For human speech and language, the cortical dorsal-ventral network architecture associated with the extended auditory system of nonhuman primates represents a strong model. A postero-dorsal network connects the auditory cortex to the posterior and dorsal part of inferior frontal cortex (IFC) (Brodmann area [BA] 44) via posterior superior temporal (pST) cortex, inferior parietal lobule (IPL), and premotor cortex (PMC), whereas an antero-ventral network traverses anterior superior temporal cortex (aST) to terminate in more anterior and ventral parts of the inferior frontal gyrus (BA 45). Recent findings suggest that language recovery from stroke depends on integration and segregation of these network communities that have been evolutionarily co-opted for language, and that focusing language therapy on these biological networks might have long term advantages. This work has elaborated network-level translational neurology of stroke recovery by way of investigation of imitation-based treatment of aphasia targeting the dorsal language network. Leadership: Dr. Small is the founder of both the Society for the Neurobiology of Language and the MIT Press open access journal, Neurobiology of Language. Background: Dr. Small is Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Irvine, where he was the Chair of the Department of Neurology from 2010-2017, and at The University of Chicago, where he founded the first high-field MRI research center in Chicago in 1999. Web: www.drsmall.org Research Interest Language Disorders after Stroke (Aphasia) Neurobiology of Language Sports-Related Head Impacts Publications Prenatal Exposure to Maternal Mood Entropy Is Associated With a Weakened and Inflexible Salience Network in Adolescence Jirsaraie RJ, Palma AM, Small SL, Sandman CA, Davis EP, Baram TZ, Stern H, Glynn LM, Yassa MA Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging 2024 Feb 9 207-216 Salivary S100 calcium-binding protein beta (S100B) and neurofilament light (NfL) after acute exposure to repeated head impacts in collegiate water polo players Monroe DC, Thomas EA, Cecchi NJ, Granger DA, Hicks JW, Small SL Scientific reports 2022 Dec 12 Rapid adaptation of predictive models during language comprehension: Aperiodic EEG slope, individual alpha frequency and idea density modulate individual differences in real-time model updating Bornkessel-Schlesewsky I, Sharrad I, Howlett CA, Alday PM, Corcoran AW, Bellan V, Wilkinson E, Kliegl R, Lewis RL, Small SL, Schlesewsky M Frontiers in Psychology 2022 Aug 13 Separating Stimulus-Induced and Background Components of Dynamic Functional Connectivity in Naturalistic fMRI Ting CM, Skipper JI, Noman F, Small SL, Ombao H IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging 2022 Jun 41 1431-1442 Head impact exposure and concussion in women’s collegiate club lacrosse Cecchi NJ, Monroe DC, Fote GM, Small SL, Hicks JW Research in Sports Medicine 2022 30 677-682 Parent Language Input Prior to School Forecasts Change in Children’s Language-Related Cortical Structures During Mid-Adolescence Demir-Lira E, Asaridou SS, Nolte C, Small SL, Goldin-Meadow S Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 2021 Aug 15 Aberrant Maturation of the Uncinate Fasciculus Follows Exposure to Unpredictable Patterns of Maternal Signals Granger SJ, Glynn LM, Sandman CA, Small SL, Obenaus A, Keator DB, Baram TZ, Stern H, Yassa MA, Davis EP The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience 2021 Feb 41 1242-1250 Identifiable Patterns of Trait, State, and Experience in Chronic Stroke Recovery Duncan ES, Shereen AD, Gentimis T, Small SL Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair 2021 Feb 35 158-168 One season of head-to-ball impact exposure alters functional connectivity in a central autonomic network Monroe DC, Blumenfeld RS, Keator DB, Solodkin A, Small SL NeuroImage 2020 Dec 223 Patterns of head impact exposure in men's and women's collegiate club water polo Cecchi NJ, Monroe DC, Phreaner JJ, Small SL, Hicks JW Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport 2020 Oct 23 927-931 Results 1-10 of 188 1 2 3 4 5 Next Last Books Featured Books Neurobiology of Language Gregory Hickok and Steven L. Small (Ed.) (2015). Netherlands, Elsevier Science Honors & Awards Ashbel Smith ProfessorEndowed Chair, University of Texas at Dallas (2023) Aage and Margareta Møller Distinguished ProfessorEndowed Chair, University of Texas at Dallas (2019-2023) Founding Editor-in-ChiefNeurobiology of Language (MIT Press) (2019) Top DoctorsOrange County, California (2019) Distinguished Career AwardSociety for the Neurobiology of Language (2018) Scientific Program Advisory Committee (SPAC)American Neurological Association (2017-2020) Secretary/TreasurerAssociation of University Professors of Neurology (AUPN) (2015-2021) Theodore von Kármán FellowRWTH Aachen University (Germany) (2014) Stanley van den Noort ProfessorEndowed Chair, University of California, Irvine (2010-2019) Editor-in-ChiefBrain and Language (Elsevier) (2005-2019) Professional Associations/Affiliations American Academy of Neurology (1990) American Neurological Association (1999) Society for Neuroscience (1991) Society for the Neurobiology of Language (2009) University of California, Irvine (2010-2017) University of Chicago (1999-2010)
