Posted on October 15, 2026 by Marleen Linares-Gonzalez
Can patterns in everyday language provide a real-world indicator of cognitive functioning in veterans with mild traumatic brain injury?
Text HCAP Research, New Grant Award and picture of Dr. Vivian Ta-Johnson
The San Antonio Medical Foundation has awarded a $200,000 grant to College for Health, Community and Policy at UT San Antonio researcher, Vivian Ta-Johnson, PhD. The newly provided funds are in support of her research project, “Language as a Window into Traumatic Brain Injury: Using AI to Identify Markers of Cognitive Processing.”
This grant brings together researchers from the University of Texas San Antonio, the South Texas Veterans Affairs Health Care System, and UT Health San Antonio to examine whether patterns in everyday language can provide a real-world indicator of cognitive functioning in veterans with mild traumatic brain injury.
The project will build on data from an ongoing clinical trial at the South Texas Veterans Affairs Health Care System. Veterans in the study will provide recorded narratives about their injury and an important life event, along with established measures of cognition, mental health and everyday functioning. The team will examine patterns in those narratives and test whether they provide useful information about cognitive functioning beyond what existing assessments capture.
On her research, Dr. Ta-Johnson shared: “We know that language can provide a rich source of information about cognitive functioning. The way someone tells a story can reflect things like attention, memory, and how well they organize information, including difficulties that may not be obvious on a standard assessment. If we can use those patterns to better understand how veterans with mild traumatic brain injury are functioning in daily life, it could help clinicians more clearly identify the challenges they are facing and provide more targeted support for recovery.”
Vivian Ta-Johnson, is an Assistant Professor of Psychology in the College for Health, Community and Policy at The University of Texas at San Antonio, where she directs the Language & Social Dynamics Lab. Her research uses natural language processing to examine how patterns in verbal behavior can reveal underlying social psychological and cognitive processes across public safety, mental health, and interpersonal settings. Dr. Ta-Johnson’s work has been published in leading academic journals and supported by organizations including the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Justice, and the American Psychological Association. She also serves as Co-Editor-in-Chief of the journal Psychology of Language and Communication.
— Marleen Linares-Gonzalez
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