Understanding how the brain recovers from impaired language processing resulting from injury (i.e., stroke) is relevant to efforts to optimize recovery of function as well as to addressing basic questions about neural plasticity in adulthood. It remains unclear (1) whether spared neural tissue within and/or outside the network for normal language processing is sufficiently plastic to support language recovery, (2) whether contralesional (usually right hemisphere) and/or ipsilesional (particularly perilesional) tissue is recruited, or whether domain-general cortical regions are critical in recovery, (3) which, if any, recruitment pattern is associated with better recovery, and (4) if recruitment patterns differ depending on domain of language impairment (i.e., morphosyntax, orthography, phonology, and semantics)? Also unclear is the impact on recovery of neurobiological variables, including lesion volume and location, vascular deficiencies (e.g., weak or delay hemodynamic response function, hypoperfusion), white matter integrity, and resting state connectivity as well as neurocognitive factors, including working memory and skill acquisition capacities (i.e., implicit and explicit learning).

The aim of this special issue is bringing together research addressing these questions in well-controlled studies using group or single-subject experimental approaches and state-of-the-art neuroimaging methods.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• The morphophysiological integrity of nonnecrosed neural tissue (e.g., contralesional and/or ipsilesional) and its role in language recovery
• The role of white matter tracts in language recovery (e.g., longitudinal tractography studies)
• Connectome-based examinations of language recovery in aphasia (e.g., language, default, and other networks)
• Neurocognitive factors associated with language recovery (e.g., working memory, learning, and executive function)
• The role of domain-specific treatment on recovery of language (e.g., morphosyntactic, orthographic, phonological, and semantic)