About Dr. Schneider
I wasn’t always a medical doctor. I was a linguist first. I used to speak to neighbors in their native tongues. I enjoyed it. I later started my academic journey obtaining post-graduate degrees in languages and linguistics. I traveled abroad to meet people and understand their demographics. I also saw socioeconomic poverty and health disparities. I wanted to help them and I wanted to find out how the brain controlled all the socio-linguistics I was absorbing.
I decided to apply to medical school. In the fourth year, I helped build a hospital in the jungle of Guatemala using Spanish, a Mayan language (kiche) and field medicine I had learned from Doctors without Borders. After graduating from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, I spent over 20 years practicing medicine. What affected me the most was learning that the cause of a condition or disease is often worse than the condition itself. I am a good diagnostician and I understand the importance of helping people understand what causes their conditions.
With the new millennium came new neuroimaging technology, such as functional MRI, the first attempt at mapping the human brain. For me, this represented a way that I could integrate my passion for languages with neuroscience - a way for me to combine medicine and linguistics. In 2001, I was accepted as a Visiting Associate Research Scientist at Columbia University Medical Center. In 2012, I moved on to Yale’s Brain Function Laboratory where I am now a neurolinguistics consultant to the Director of the laboratory.
I continue to research the amazing brain to find answers about the how the brain controls language and what we might do to restore it. I try to understand the brain damage that causes aphasia and that is responsible for language difficulties in children with ASD. To treat people, I use non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS), transcranial direct current stimulation (TDCS) together with specially developed language interventions to begin to restore speech and comprehension [More about TDCS].
Today, it’s more important than ever to know the difference between real science and falsehoods. The scientific community needs to do its part to educate the public about key concepts in true scientific research. Transparency is paramount to maintaining the public’s trust which can be lost very easily. [View New York Times Article]
It is our mission to bring real scientific research out of the lab, into our offices, and back to your home. We welcome you to join us at one of our national or global offices where you and I will approach important issues you have as a team and plan how best to utilize these therapies.
I am an experienced diagnostician. I try to figure things out. I encourage families to learn as much as I do and to ask questions. Working together we promote self-esteem and increase willpower. Everything is a team effort [More about Our Philosophy]
“During a consultation with Dr. Schneider,