RHB Student Presents Dementia Research in Hawaii

By Ryan Clark
CHS Communications Director

Emily Jones never imagined she would present her research to an international audience in Hawaii. A first-generation college student from Appalachia, Jones is now a first-year doctoral student at the University of Kentucky — and she recently did exactly that, presenting to academics in the Aloha State.

Jones, 25, a student in the Rehabilitation and Health Sciences PhD Program in the College of Health Sciences, recently presented a research poster at the Sixth Joint Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America and the Acoustical Society of Japan in Honolulu.

The international conference brought together researchers from around the world to share advances in acoustics, speech and hearing sciences. Jones’ poster, titled “Dual-Modal Analysis of Speech and fNIRS for Dementia Identification,” explored how speech patterns and brain activity can be used to distinguish dementia of the Alzheimer’s type from normal cognitive aging.

“This conference was international and interdisciplinary, so I had the privilege of discussing our research with individuals from around the world,” Jones said. “As a first-generation college student from Appalachia, I feel so fortunate to have opportunities to broaden my worldview.”

Jones, a native of South Salem, Ohio, is pursuing research that combines speech-language pathology and neuroscience. Her work uses acoustic speech analysis and functional near-infrared spectroscopy, or fNIRS, to examine interhemispheric brain activation patterns associated with dementia.

Her interest in the topic began early in her academic career.

“My advisor, Dr. Chorong Oh, first introduced me to the role speech language pathologists have in the care of older adults during my freshman year,” Jones said. “I have close relationships with family members from older generations, so I was drawn to a career path that might improve their health in some way.”

Since then, Jones has collaborated with Oh on multiple projects focused on identifying speech characteristics in older adults with and without cognitive impairments.

Chorong Oh, PhD and assistant professor in the College of Health Sciences, said Jones’ presentation was well received at the conference.

“She did a great job and her presentation was popular,” Oh said.

Jones said she is grateful for the opportunity to attend the conference and for the support that made the experience possible.

“I would like to express my deep gratitude to the Rehabilitation and Health Sciences PhD program and the Acoustical Society of America for the financial support to travel to this presentation,” she said.

Jones is expected to graduate in 2029.