Eleanor M. Saffran (May 16, 1938 – November 23, 2002), an American neuroscientist, was a researcher in the field of

Cognitive Neuropsychology Cognitive neuropsychology is a branch of cognitive psychology that aims to understand how the structure and function of the brain relates to specific psychological processes. Cognitive psychology is the science that looks at how mental processes ...

. Her interest in Neuropsychology began at the Baltimore City hospitals of

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consi ...

, where her research unit focused on neurological patients with language or

cognitive impairment Cognitive deficit is an inclusive term to describe any characteristic that acts as a barrier to the cognition process. The term may describe * deficits in overall intelligence (as with intellectual disabilities), * specific and restricted defici ...

s. In papers published between 1976 and 1982, Dr. Saffran spelled out the methodological tenets of “cognitive neuropsychology” exemplified in her studies of

aphasia Aphasia is an inability to comprehend or formulate language because of damage to specific brain regions. The major causes are stroke and head trauma; prevalence is hard to determine but aphasia due to stroke is estimated to be 0.1–0.4% in t ...

, alexia (acquired dyslexia),

auditory verbal agnosia Auditory verbal agnosia (AVA), also known as pure word deafness, is the inability to comprehend speech. Individuals with this disorder lose the ability to understand language, repeat words, and write from dictation. Some patients with AVA describe ...

, and short-term memory impairment.

Career

In 1980, Saffran joined the Neurology Department of

Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public state-related research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist minister Russell Conwell and his congregation Grace Baptist Church of Philadelphia then calle ...

and established the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience. Here she built an interdisciplinary research group composed of

neurologist Neurology (from el, νεῦρον (neûron), "string, nerve" and the suffix -logia, "study of") is the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the brain, the spinal c ...

s, psychologists, and speech-language pathologists. Under her leadership, this group extended the cognitive neuropsychological approach to the analysis of neurological disorders of

perception Perception () is the organization, identification, and interpretation of sensory information in order to represent and understand the presented information or environment. All perception involves signals that go through the nervous system ...

, visual attention, and

semantics Semantics (from grc, σημαντικός ''sēmantikós'', "significant") is the study of reference, meaning, or truth. The term can be used to refer to subfields of several distinct disciplines, including philosophy, linguistics and comp ...

. These years also marked the continuation of her longstanding collaboration with Myrna Schwartz of

MossRehab MossRehab is a physical rehabilitation hospital and other centers located in the Philadelphia region of Pennsylvania that opened in the early 1900s as part of the original Jewish Hospital. Moss became an independent facility in 1952. During the 1 ...

(part of the

Einstein Healthcare Network Einstein Healthcare Network is a private non-profit healthcare organization based in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania region of the United States. The healthcare network serves Greater Philadelphia and its flagship hospital is the Einstein Medical ...

) which began in Baltimore in 1975. An innovative aspect of their research was its emphasis on application of language theory to diagnosis and treatment of

language disorder Language disorders or language impairments are disorders that involve the processing of linguistic information. Problems that may be experienced can involve grammar (syntax and/or morphology), semantics (meaning), or other aspects of language. ...

s. This model was embraced by other researchers of language and remains a standard approach in aphasia research today. As the field of cognitive neuropsychology matured, Saffran became recognized as one of its most influential practitioners. In 1989, her grant on the

psycholinguistic Psycholinguistics or psychology of language is the study of the interrelation between linguistic factors and psychological aspects. The discipline is mainly concerned with the mechanisms by which language is processed and represented in the mind ...

analysis of language disorders was awarded the Claude Pepper Award of Excellence by th
National Institute on Deafness and Communication Disorders
In 1991, Saffran was appointed as professor in th

at Temple University. She continued teaching her courses even after progression of a degenerative condition had weakened her speaking voice and use of her hands. Her contributions to research were recognized posthumously when she was awarded the Temple University Faculty Research Award for excellence in research in 2003.http://www.temple.edu/temple_times_archives/2003/4-10-03/saffran.html Eleanor Saffran Receives Posthumous Research Award

Legacy

Longtime colleague Nadine Martin, associate professor of communication sciences and disorders at Temple University, started working with Saffran in 1982 and then completed her Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology at Temple University in 1987. Today she continues Saffran's tradition of scholarship and mentorship as Director of th
Eleanor M. Saffran Center for Cognitive Neuroscience
Her daughter Jenny Saffran has also pursued a career in research in cognitive science. She leads th
Infant Learning Laboratory
at

University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United Stat ...

List of important papers

* Saffran EM, Marin OS, Yeni-Komshian GH. (1976) An analysis of speech perception in word deafness. ''Brain and Language'', 3:209-28. * Saffran EM, Schwartz MF, Marin OS. (1980) The word order problem in agrammatism. II. Production. ''Brain and Language'', 10:263-80. * Saffran EM, Schwartz MF, Marin OS. (1980) The word order problem in agrammatism. I. Comprehension. ''Brain and Language'', 10:249-62.
Linebarger MC
Schwartz MF, Saffran EM. (1983) Sensitivity to grammatical structure in so-called agrammatic aphasics. ''Cognition'', 13:361-92.http://talkingbrains.blogspot.com/2007/11/top-10-most-importantinfluential-papers.html Top 10 Most Important/influential Papers in the Neuroscience of Language * Saffran EM, Berndt RS, Schwartz MF. (1989) The quantitative analysis of agrammatic production: procedure and data. ''Brain and Language''. 37:440-79. * Saffran EM, Schwartz MF. (1994) Impairment of sentence comprehension. ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences'', 346:47-53.
Dell GS
Schwartz MF, Martin N, Saffran EM, Gagnon DA. (1997) Lexical access in aphasic and nonaphasic speakers. ''Psychological Review'', 104:801-38. * Martin N, Saffran EM. (1997) Language and auditory-verbal short-term memory impairments: Evidence for common underlying processes. ''Cognitive Neuropsychology'', 14:641–682. * Saffran EM, Schwartz MF, Linebarger MC. (1998) Semantic influences on thematic role assignment: evidence from normals and aphasics. ''Brain and Language'', 62:255-97. * Saffran EM. (2000) The organization of semantic memory: in support of a distributed model. ''Brain and Language'', 71:204-12.

References

* Schwartz, M

& Martin, N. (2004)
In Memoriam: Eleanor M. Saffran''Brain and Language''
89:1-2. * Behrmann M, Patterson K. (Eds.) (2006) Words and Things: Cognitive Neuropsychological Studies in Tribute to Eleanor M. Saffran. A special issue of the journa
''Cognitive Neuropsychology''
Psychology Press.

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saffran, Eleanor American women psychologists 20th-century American psychologists American cognitive neuroscientists Neuropsychologists American women neuroscientists 20th-century American women scientists Speech perception researchers Temple University faculty 1938 births 2002 deaths American women academics