University of Wisconsin–Madison
Haley Dresang, PhD

Haley Dresang, PhD

Assistant Professor, Communication Sciences and Disorders

Haley Dresang, PhD

Biography

PhD, University of Pittsburgh

Contact Information

Waisman Center
1500 Highland Avenue
Room 433
Madison, WI 53705
(608) 890-0628
hdresang@wisc.edu
NeuroLAND

Research Statement

Haley Dresang investigates the neuroscience of language and neurological disorders that affect communication. Her research advances our understanding of the brain and how treatments can improve language following stroke, brain injury, and neurodegenerative conditions.

The mission of her lab is to improve the lives of individuals with communication difficulties by investigating questions like these:

  1. How does the brain perform cognitive and linguistic functions?
  2. How do brain systems change and adapt following neurological injury or dysfunction?
  3. How can we improve clinical assessments and treatments to facilitate recovery and improve performance?

Selected Publications

Pubmed

Olson, H., Yeh, F. C., & Dresang, H. C. (2025). Mapping distinct neural pathways associated with conceptual and lexical verb retrieval priming in aphasia: A preliminary study. NeuroImage. Clinical, 48, 103867. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nicl.2025.103867

Dresang, H.C., Dalton, S.G., McCreary, E.,* Pittman, E.,* & Stark, B.C. (2025). Iconic gesture use during discourse production in latent aphasia. Aphasiology. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/02687038.2025.2511215

Dresang, H. C., Harvey, D. Y., Vnenchak, L., Parchure, S., Cason, S., Twigg, P., Faseyitan, O., Maher, L. M., Hamilton, R. H., & Coslett, H. B. (2025). Semantic and Phonological Abilities Inform Efficacy of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation on Sustained Aphasia Treatment Outcomes. Neurobiology of language (Cambridge, Mass.), 6, nol_a_00160. https://doi.org/10.1162/nol_a_00160

Dresang, H. C., Warren, T., Hula, W. D., & Dickey, M. W. (2024). Rational adaptation in word production: Strong conceptual ability reduces the effect of lexical impairments on verb retrieval in aphasia. Neuropsychologia, 201, 108938. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2024.108938

Quique, Y. M., Dickey, M. W., & Dresang, H. C. (2023). Preliminary investigation of semantic memory assessments in Colombian adults with and without post-stroke aphasia. Neurology Perspectives, 4 (1), 100139. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neurop.2023.100139

Dresang, H. C., Williamson, R., Kim, H., Hillis, A. E., & Buxbaum, L. J. (2024). Gesture profiles distinguish primary progressive aphasia variants: A preliminary study. Aphasiology, 38(11), 1853–1868. https://doi.org/10.1080/02687038.2024.2326449

Stoll, H., Brecher, A., Coslett, H. B., Dresang, H. C., Faseyitan, O., Hamilton, R., Harvey, D., Kelkar, A., Medaglia, J., Sacchetti, D., & Turkeltaub, P. (2023). Changes in right pars triangularis network role and naming errors in post-stroke aphasia. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 38 (7), 1451-1451 doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/arclin/acad067.290 †

Dresang, H. C., Wong, A. L., & Buxbaum, L. J. (2023). Shared and distinct routes in speech and gesture imitation: Evidence from stroke. Cortex; a journal devoted to the study of the nervous system and behavior, 162, 81–95. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2023.01.010

Dresang, H. C., Williamson, R., Kim, H., Hillis, A. E., & Buxbaum, L. J. (2023). Gesture profiles distinguish primary progressive aphasia variants. bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology, 2023.01.19.524719. https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.01.19.524719

Dresang, H. C., Harvey, D. Y., Xie, S. X., Shah-Basak, P. P., DeLoretta, L., Wurzman, R., Parchure, S. Y., Sacchetti, D., Faseyitan, O., Lohoff, F. W., & Hamilton, R. H. (2022). Genetic and Neurophysiological Biomarkers of Neuroplasticity Inform Post-Stroke Language Recovery. Neurorehabilitation and neural repair, 36(6), 371–380. https://doi.org/10.1177/15459683221096391

Dresang, H. C., Hula, W. D., Yeh, F. C., Warren, T., & Dickey, M. W. (2021). White-Matter Neuroanatomical Predictors of Aphasic Verb Retrieval. Brain connectivity, 11(4), 319–330. https://doi.org/10.1089/brain.2020.0921

Dresang, H. C., Warren, T., Hula, W. D., & Dickey, M. W. (2021). Rational Adaptation in Using Conceptual Versus Lexical Information in Adults With Aphasia. Frontiers in psychology, 12, 589930. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.589930

Warren, T., & Dresang, H. C. (2021). Event-Predictive Cognition: Underspecification and Interaction With Language. Topics in cognitive science, 13(1), 248–251. https://doi.org/10.1111/tops.12499

Hula, W. D., Panesar, S., Gravier, M. L., Yeh, F. C., Dresang, H. C., Dickey, M. W., & Fernandez-Miranda, J. C. (2020). Structural white matter connectometry of word production in aphasia: an observational study. Brain : a journal of neurology, 143(8), 2532–2544. https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awaa193

Dresang, H. C., Dickey, M. W., & Warren, T. C. (2019). Semantic memory for objects, actions, and events: A novel test of event-related conceptual semantic knowledge. Cognitive neuropsychology, 36(7-8), 313–335. https://doi.org/10.1080/02643294.2019.1656604

Dresang, H. C., & Turkstra, L. S. (2018). Implicit causality bias in adults with traumatic brain injury. Journal of communication disorders, 71, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcomdis.2017.12.003