Brenda Rapp

Brenda Rapp
Name	Brenda Rapp
Occupation	Cognitive neuroscientist
Known for	Research on acquired dysgraphia and cognitive neuropsychology
Workplaces	Johns Hopkins University, Georgetown University, National Institutes of Health

Brenda Rapp is an American cognitive neuroscientist and neuropsychologist known for her work on the cognitive and neural bases of written language, including acquired dysgraphia and alexia. She has held faculty positions at major research institutions and has contributed to models of reading and spelling, neuroimaging studies, and patient-based cognitive neuropsychology. Her work bridges clinical neuropsychology, cognitive neuroscience, and computational modeling.

Early life and education

Rapp completed undergraduate and graduate training in psychology and neuroscience at institutions associated with notable figures such as Noam Chomsky, Jerome Bruner, George Miller, Steven Pinker and centers including Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University. She pursued doctoral research in cognitive neuropsychology influenced by laboratories at University College London, Oxford University, Cambridge University, and Columbia University. Postdoctoral training included mentorship and collaboration with researchers at the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins University, and research groups connected to Temple University and University of Pennsylvania.

Academic career and positions

Rapp has held faculty appointments at research universities and medical centers including Georgetown University, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and research affiliations with the National Institutes of Health. She has served on editorial boards of journals associated with publishers such as Elsevier, Springer Nature, and Oxford University Press. Her academic service includes participation in review panels for funding agencies like the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, Wellcome Trust, and committees at professional societies including the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, Society for Neuroscience, and American Psychological Association.

Research and contributions

Rapp's research integrates patient studies of focal brain lesions, functional neuroimaging using functional magnetic resonance imaging, and computational modeling to investigate orthographic processing, phonological processing, and the interface between semantics and written language. She has contributed to cognitive neuropsychological models that relate data from cases of acquired dysgraphia and acquired alexia to theories developed by researchers at University College London, MIT, Stanford University, University of California, Berkeley, and McGill University. Her work has employed techniques and concepts developed in laboratories associated with Michael Gazzaniga, Sergio Della Sala, Anne Castles, Max Coltheart, Bruno Dubois, and Marta Kutas.

Clinical case studies in her publications have documented patterns of spared and impaired spelling abilities following infarcts to regions supplied by the middle cerebral artery and lesions in perisylvian cortex described in literature from Broca's area and Wernicke's area investigations. Neuroimaging findings in her work implicate regions such as the left inferior frontal gyrus, left fusiform gyrus, left angular gyrus, and posterior superior temporal gyrus in orthographic retrieval and written word production, building on anatomical-functional mappings from studies at Massachusetts General Hospital, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and Mount Sinai Health System.

Rapp has advanced computational models linking orthographic lexicons to phonological and semantic systems, drawing on modeling traditions from David Marr, James McClelland, Geoffrey Hinton, Tomaso Poggio, and Patricia Churchland. Her translational work has informed rehabilitation approaches influenced by protocols developed at Mayo Clinic, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Sheba Medical Center, and Royal Melbourne Hospital.

Selected publications

- Rapp, et al., papers in journals published by Nature Publishing Group, Science, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, and Cognitive Neuropsychology documenting cases of acquired dysgraphia and functional imaging of spelling networks. - Monograph and book chapters in edited volumes from Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, and MIT Press on written language processing and neuropsychological assessment. - Methodological articles on lesion-symptom mapping drawing on techniques used at University College London and University of Oxford.

Awards and honors

Rapp's honors include recognition from organizations such as the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading, Cognitive Neuroscience Society, and awards from institutions like Johns Hopkins University and Georgetown University. She has received research funding and fellowships from agencies including the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, and European funding bodies including the European Research Council.

Personal life and outreach

Rapp has been active in mentoring graduate students and postdoctoral researchers who have gone on to positions at universities like University of California, Los Angeles, University of Wisconsin–Madison, New York University, and King's College London. She has participated in public outreach through lectures at museums and science festivals such as events hosted by the Smithsonian Institution, American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Dana Foundation.

Category:Cognitive neuroscientists