The overall goal of this project is to advance a biologically-based approach to treatment of reading disorders after stroke, which will expand the limits of cognitive rehabilitation. Using a novel brain imaging technique, called real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) neurofeedback combined with right hand motor imagery, this project will re-instate brain activity in the left language-dominant hemisphere. Stroke patients will practice modulating their own brain activity using fMRI neurofeedback signal and will select the most effective mental strategies that help them maintain brain activation patterns associated with better reading recovery.

Inclusion Criteria:

• First-ever left-hemisphere stroke < 3 months prior to study recruitment or healthy volunteer
• Age: 18 - 80 years old
• Fluent and literate in English prior to stroke
• Reading deficits, defined as >3 errors on the Paragraphs test (subtests VIII, IX) of the Reading Comprehension Battery for Aphasia-2nd ed. (RCBA-2) in keeping with the healthy control accuracy criterion of 86-100% correct.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Inability to consent or complete study tasks
• Inability to undergo MRI (e.g., pregnancy, non-MRI compatible implants, claustrophobia)
• A history of prior neurological disease (e.g., brain tumor, Alzheimer's disease)

Data generated in this project may be shared in accordance with the funding agency (NIH) and site organization (Kessler Foundation) policies, as well as the Notice of Privacy of Practices and Informed Consent documents signed by each participant in the study. In case data are shared, they will be de-identified, such that no link can be made to the individual participant. To prevent the possibility of deductive disclosure of participants through brain scans and the association with the rehabilitation hospital, data and associated documentation will be made available to users only under a data-sharing agreement.

Data may be shared after the acceptance for publication of the main findings of the study.

Data may be shared upon request and following the establishment of a data sharing agreement, that provides for: (1) a commitment to using the data only for research purposes and not to identify any individual participant; (2) a commitment to securing the data using appropriate computer technology; and (3) a commitment to destroying or returning the data after analyses are completed.

Participants will be masked to the nature of real-time fMRI neurofeedback they will receive: contingent or non-contingent.