Dr. Antonucci is a clinical researcher and speech-language pathologist whose work focuses on aphasia and aphasia rehabilitation. Over the course of her career, she has pursued several lines of research. Her work, grounded in cognitive neuropsychology, investigates relationships between lexical retrieval and semantic processing, and the neuroanatomical substrates thereof, as well as lexical retrieval impairments in those with stroke aphasia and theoretically-motivated treatments thereof, particularly in the context of functional communication during connected speech. Her work has expanded to include animal-assisted treatment research founded within the perspective of the life participation approach to aphasia

Dr. Antonucci’s earliest work focuses on investigation of the neural substrates of impairment to semantically-guided lexical retrieval in individuals with unilateral left temporal lobe lesions, as well as on characterizing the nature of the impairment with respect to disruption to phonological-, semantic-, and orthographic-lexical processing.

Dr. Antonucci has developed cognitive neuropsychological assessments designed to examine patterns of naming impairment in persons with aphasia, which have also informed development of theoretically-motivated treatments for anomia, specifically within the context of connected speech.

Dr. Antonucci’s work has expanded to the study of animal-assisted interventions for those with aphasia, with a focus on the practical, clinical, and ethical considerations.