Nichol Castro
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nicholcastro.bsky.social
Nichol Castro
@nicholcastro.bsky.social
Assistant Professor at University at Buffalo. Complexity of word retrieval and its rehabilitation. #aging #aphasia #dementia #netsci Cat mom of 2 🐈
Amazing work! Looking forward to digging into the paper more.
October 14, 2025 at 8:51 PM
Tx is way more complex than our research studies give it credit. It's multifactorial and highly individualized imo. Likely doing several "things" (mechanisms) at once in interactive, emergent ways. Dont think we have good grasp on measuring this yet. Shameless plug, my recent work is headed this way
August 11, 2025 at 11:33 PM
Maybe! Treatments without verbal production, outcomes not reliant on verbal production would be needed to test this. Reminds me of Mackenzie Fama's inner speech work!
August 11, 2025 at 11:10 PM
Relatedly.. all our anomia outcome measures tend to be verbal naming tasks. I think if we had other measures of word retrieval, we might see more/different across the scope of anomia treatments
August 11, 2025 at 9:55 PM
Such a good question! I think that's part of it. We have fewer phonemes than semantics/concepts too. So maybe also we're (weakly) strengthening the phonological encoding part for lots of words, even if our targets are limited.
August 11, 2025 at 9:52 PM
5. PhD program: arts-sciences.buffalo.edu/cds/grad/phd...

UB Graduate School: www.buffalo.edu/grad.html

UB PhD Funding: www.buffalo.edu/grad/explore...

Lab Website: sites.google.com/view/alnlab

Again - please reach out if interested. Happy to talk prior to submitting an app (and paying app fee!)
July 24, 2025 at 1:04 PM
4. Our PhD curriculum is flexible to meet a variety of student backgrounds and needs. I’m open to accepting students with backgrounds in SLP/CSD, Psych, Ling, Comp Sci, Rehab Sci, and related

My work is interdisciplinary and you'll be trained similarly
July 24, 2025 at 1:04 PM
3. I am a firm believer in a mentorship model (vs say a trainee model). I will teach you some things, but I will also point you in lots of directions. I don't know everything and I certainly don't want you to do exactly what I do

The best part of mentoring is growing and learning *with* someone
July 24, 2025 at 1:04 PM
2. Good oral and written communication. I can certainly help you grow (side story - I used to have debilitating stage fright) but know that this is going to be required

And it's not just through pubs and presentations. It's also communicating to broad and varied audiences and with me directly
July 24, 2025 at 1:04 PM
1. Prior research experience is desirable but I also want to see these qualities in a PhD student that (I think) make a good researcher:

-openness to new ideas, methods, experiences
-a desire to explore and ask questions (aka initiative)
July 24, 2025 at 1:04 PM