Publications & Achievements

Funding & Awards

Clinical Catalyst Award | 2026-2027

Dr. Lukic received a $50,000 Clinical Catalyst Grant from the FSU Office of Research to support clinical research in stroke aphasia and improve rehabilitative outcomes for individuals living with chronic aphasia.

The project brings together FSU researchers and local healthcare providers to investigate the feasibility of combining Vagus Nerve Stimulation (VNS) with scalable, digital, home-based speech-language therapy. The goal is to determine whether VNS can enhance language recovery beyond traditional rehabilitation while increasing access to personalized, continuous aphasia treatment.

Role: Principal Investigator
Funding: $50,000
Award year: 2026
Clinical collaborator: Dr. Narlin Beaty, MD

[Learn more about the Clinical Catalyst Grant]

NIH K12 UF–FSU CTS Award | 2025–2027

Neurolinguistic Investigations of Aphasia and Typical Language Processing

Dr. Lukic was awarded the UF–FSU CTSI NIH K12 Multidisciplinary Program Career Development Award to investigate the neural and cognitive mechanisms underlying language processing in aphasia and typical language.

Role: Principal Investigator (75%)
Award period: August 20, 2025 – August 19, 2027

[Learn more about the K12 CTSA Scholar Program]

First Year Assistant Professor Award | 2024

Dr. Lukic received a First Year Assistant Professor (FYAP) Award from the FSU Council on Research and Creativity (CRC) to support her research program in language, brain, and cognition.

Conference Highlights

Society for Neurobiology of Language | 2024

Dr. Lukic presented “Towards Modern, Theory-Driven Approaches to Grammar in Aphasia” at the SNL 2024 symposium. The presentation provided an overview of linguistic theories of syntactic impairment and evidence from individuals with both progressive and stroke-induced aphasia.

Academy of Aphasia | 2024

Dr. Lukic presented two studies examining language production in aphasia and primary progressive aphasia.

The first study was titled “Neurocognitive patterns of verb production deficit therapy: a single case with logopenic variant Primary Progressive Aphasia.” This single-case treatment study examined behavioral and neural changes following Verb Network Strengthening Treatment (VNeST) in an individual with logopenic variant primary progressive aphasia. The study explored whether improvements in noun–verb production generalized to spontaneous speech.

In collaboration with Professor Vukovic, Dr. Lukic presented “The Production of Clitics in Serbian Speakers with Acquired Aphasia.” A study examining the production and omission of clitics in Serbian speakers with post-stroke aphasia. The project takes advantage of the rich clitic system of Serbian to investigate how aphasia affects function-word production across languages.

American Academy of Psychiatry | 2024

In collaboration with Brown University, Dr. Lukic presented research examining neuropsychological and language patterns across behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) and nonfluent/agrammatic primary progressive aphasia (nfvPPA). This work contributes to the understanding of the intersection between language, cognition, and behavior across neurodegenerative syndromes.

Adelphi University Scholarship & Creative Work Conference | 2023

Undergraduate researcher Nicholas Strada presented preliminary findings from a single-case study investigating neurocognitive patterns of verb production therapy in logopenic variant primary progressive aphasia.

Nicholas received one of five Adelphi Summer Research and Creative Fellowships ($3,000) to conduct this research under the mentorship of Dr. Lukic.

Society for Neurobiology of Language | 2022

Dr. Lukic presented research examining the role of transitivity and finiteness in verb production in primary progressive aphasia, along with their neuroanatomical correlates using surface-based morphometry.

Schwab Dyslexia and Cognitive Diversity Center | 2022

Dr. Lukic presented research examining individual differences in verbal short-term memory in developmental dyslexia and their neuroanatomical correlates using surface-based morphometry.

Selected Publications

2025

Lukic, S., Jiang, F., Mandelli, M. L., Qi, T., Inkelis, S. M., Rosenthal, E., et al. (2025). A semantic strength and neural correlates in developmental dyslexia. Frontiers in Psychology, 15, 1405425.

Lukic, S., Qi, T., Pereira, C. W., Mandelli, M. L., Bogley, R., Shabash, M., et al. (2025). Verbal short-term memory in developmental dyslexia: The role of the temporoparietal area. Brain and Language, 265, 105570.

2024

Lukic, S., Fan, Z., García, A. M., Welch, A. E., Ratnasiri, B. M., Wilson, S. M., et al. (2024). Discriminating nonfluent/agrammatic and logopenic PPA variants with automatically extracted morphosyntactic measures from connected speech. Cortex, 173, 34–48.

2023

Barbieri, E., Lukic, S., Rogalski, E., Weintraub, S., Mesulam, M. M., & Thompson, C. K. (2023). Neural mechanisms of sentence production: A volumetric study of primary progressive aphasia. Cerebral Cortex.

Lukic, S., Kosik, E. L., Roy, A. R., Morris, N., Sible, I. J., Datta, S., et al. (2023). Higher emotional granularity relates to greater inferior frontal cortex cortical thickness in healthy, older adults. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience.

Lukic, S., Krauska, A., Yoshida, M., & Thompson, C. K. (2023). The role of category ambiguity in normal and impaired lexical processing: Can you paint without the paint? Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 17, 188.

Lorca-Puls, G., Gajardo-Vidal, A., Mandelli, M. L., Illán-Gala, I., Ezzes, Z., Wauters, L., et al., including Lukic, S. (2023). Neural basis of speech and grammar symptoms in nonfluent variant primary progressive aphasia spectrum.

Mandelli, M. L., Lorca-Puls, D. L., Lukic, S., Montembeault, M., Gajardo-Vidal, A., Licata, A., et al. (2023). Network anatomy in logopenic variant of primary progressive aphasia. Human Brain Mapping.

2022

Lukic, S., Licata, A. E., Weis, E., Bogley, R., Ratnasiri, B., Welch, A., et al. (2022). Auditory verb generation performance patterns dissociate variants of primary progressive aphasia. Frontiers in Psychology.

García, A. M., Welch, A. E., Mandelli, M. L., Henry, M. L., Lukic, S., Prioris, M. J. T., et al. (2022). Automated detection of speech timing alterations in autopsy-confirmed nonfluent/agrammatic variant primary progressive aphasia. Neurology, 99(5), e500–e511.

Tee, B. L., Watson Pereira, C., Lukic, S., Bajorek, L. P., Allen, I. E., Miller, Z. A., et al. (2022). Neuroanatomical correlations of visuospatial processing in primary progressive aphasia. Brain Communications, 4(2), fcac060.

Shdo, S. M., Roy, A. R., Datta, S., Sible, I. J., Lukic, S., et al. (2022). Enhanced positive emotional reactivity in frontotemporal dementia reflects left-lateralized atrophy in the temporal and frontal lobes. Cortex, 154, 405–420.

Staffaroni, A. M., Weintraub, S., Rascovsky, K., Rankin, K. P., Taylor, J., Fields, J. A., et al., including Lukic, S. (2021/2022). Uniform data set language measures for bvFTD and PPA diagnosis and monitoring. Alzheimer's & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring, 13(1), e12148.

Stiver, J., Staffaroni, A. M., Walters, S. M., You, M. Y., Casaletto, K. B., Erlhoff, S. J., et al., including Lukic, S. (2022). The Rapid Naming Test: Development and initial validation in typically aging adults. The Clinical Neuropsychologist, 36(7), 1822–1843.

2021

Lukic, S., Borghesani, V., Weis, E., Welch, A., Bogley, R., Neuhaus, J., et al. (2021). Dissociating nouns and verbs in temporal and perisylvian networks: Evidence from neurodegenerative diseases. Cortex, 142, 47–61.

Lukic, S., Thompson, C. K., Barbieri, E., Chiappetta, B., Bonakdarpour, B., Kiran, S., et al. (2021). Common and distinct neural substrates of sentence production and comprehension. NeuroImage, 224, 117374.

Borghesani, V., Dale, C., Lukic, S., Hinkley, L., Lauricella, M., Shwe, W., et al. (2021). Semantic categories in a faulty semantic system: Evidence from semantic variant of primary progressive aphasia. eLife, 10, e63905.

2019

Lukic, S., Meltzer-Asscher, A., Higgins, J., Parrish, T. B., & Thompson, C. K. (2019). Neurocognitive correlates of category ambiguous verb processing: The single versus dual lexical entry hypotheses. Brain and Language, 194, 65–76.

Lukic, S., Mandelli, M. L., Welch, A., Jordan, K., Shwe, W., Neuhaus, J., et al. (2019). Neurocognitive basis of repetition deficits in primary progressive aphasia. Brain and Language, 194, 35–45.

2017

Lukic, S., Barbieri, E., Wang, X., Caplan, D., Kiran, S., Rapp, B., Parrish, T., & Thompson, C. K. (2017). Right hemisphere grey matter volume and language functions in stroke aphasia. Neural Plasticity.

2012

Thompson, C. K., Lukic, S., King, M. C., Mesulam, M., & Weintraub, S. (2012). Verb and noun deficits in stroke-induced and primary progressive aphasia: The Northwestern Naming Battery. Aphasiology, 26, 632–655.

Den Ouden, D. B., Saur, D., Mader, W., Schelter, B., Lukic, S., Wali, E., Timmer, J., & Thompson, C. K. (2012). Network modulation during complex syntactic processing. NeuroImage, 59, 815–823.

Preprints & Manuscripts Under Review

Lukic, S., Barbieri, E., Rogalski, E. J., Weintraub, S., Marsel-Mesulam, M., & Thompson, K. C. Neural correlates of transitive and finite verb production deficits in primary progressive aphasia: The role of inferior parietal and frontal regions.

Book Chapters

Lukic, S., & Borghesani, V. (2023, in press). Organization and structure of the lexical system. In G. J. Boyle (Ed.), The SAGE Handbook of Cognitive and Systems Neuroscience.

Lukic, S., Borghesani, V., Gorno-Tempini, M. L., & Battistella, G. (2022). Voxel-based brain-behavior mapping in neurodegenerative diseases. In D. Pustina & D. Mirman (Eds.), Lesion-to-Symptom Mapping: Principles and Tools. Springer Neuromethods.

Selected Oral Presentations

Lukic, S. Language breakdowns in neurological disorders as a window into cognition. Invited research talk, Haskins Laboratories Staff Talk, June 2, 2022.

Lukic, S. The Neurobiology of the Lexical System: What Kind of Data Is Actually Missing? Invited research talk, C-Star Lecture Series, April 21, 2022.

Lukic, S. Investigating Auditory Verbal Short-Term Memory in Dyslexia. Invited research talk, Schwab Dyslexia and Cognitive Diversity Center Spring Symposium, April 13, 2022.

Lukic, S. Language in Healthy and Diseased Brains & the FTLD PALPA. Invited research talks, Cognitive Neuroscience Seminar, Columbia University, October 14 and November 18, 2021.

Lukic, S., Borghesani, V., Shwe, W., Weis, L., Neuhaus, J., et al. Dissociating grammatical categories in temporal and perisylvian networks: Evidence from neurodegenerative disease. Platform presentation, Academy of Aphasia Conference, October 29, 2019.

Lukic, S., Kosik, J. E., Morris, N., Sible, I. J., Datta, S., Roy, A., et al. Emotional granularity reflects cortical thickness in ventrolateral prefrontal cortex. Platform presentation, Bay Area Affective Science Conference, June 22, 2019.

Lukic, S., & Lindbergh, C. A. Neurobiology of word retrieval difficulties in aging and FTD: Compensation and reorganization. Behavioral Neurology Journal Club, Memory and Aging Center, January 8, 2019

Selected Poster Presentations

Lukic, S., Barbieri, E., Rogalski, E. J., Weintraub, S., Marsel-Mesulam, M., & Thompson, K. C. Neural correlates of transitive and finite verb production deficits in primary progressive aphasia: The role of inferior parietal and frontal regions. Society for Neurobiology of Language, October 7, 2022.

Lukic, S., Fan, Z., Welch, A., Miller, B., Wilson, S., Gorno-Tempini, M. L., & García, A. Characterizing morphosyntactic deficits in primary progressive aphasia using NLP: The bilateral inferior frontal lobe. American Academy of Neurology Annual Meeting, April 19, 2021.

Lukic, S., Borghesani, V., Shwe, W., Weis, L., Neuhaus, J., et al. Dissociating grammatical categories in temporal and perisylvian networks: Evidence from neurodegenerative disease. Society for Neurobiology of Language, August 20–22, 2019.

Lukic, S., Mandelli, M. L., Welch, A., Jordan, K., Cobigo, Y., Hubbard, I. H., & Gorno-Tempini, M. L. Sentence repetition impairment in primary progressive aphasia: A voxel-based morphometry study. Neurobiology of Language Meeting, Baltimore, MD, November 8–10, 2017.