A temporal window for the central inhibition of stuttering via exogenous speech signals in adults.
We explored a possible temporal window for central stuttering inhibition via exogenously presented speech signals. Thirteen adults who stutter were asked to read while listening to a continuous vowel /a/, or a repeating 1 s vowel /a/ followed by 1, 3 and 5 s silences. In all conditions, stuttering was significantly reduced. However, the continuous and 1 s repeating conditions showed the greatest reduction in stuttering relative to all other conditions. Furthermore, these conditions did not differ significantly from each other, suggesting a temporal window of at least 1 s for stuttering inhibition induced by a 1 s stimulus. We propose that exogenous speech signals provide an additional speech source that engages mirror neurons for 'on-line' stuttering inhibition during continous speech. Employing dual speech sources results in 'on-line' stuttering inhibition and continuous speech flow. In contrast, endogenous (single source) inhibitory techniques require speech flow to be interrupted and go 'off-line' to derive the mirror neuronal.
Saltuklaroglu
Tim
T
Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC 27858, USA.
Kalinowski
Joseph
J
Dayalu
Vikram N
VN
Guntupalli
Vijaya K
VK
Stuart
Andrew
A
Rastatter
Michael P
MP
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005246:Feedback / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009433:Neural Inhibition / Q000502:physiology*; D013060:Speech / Q000502:physiology*; D013062:Speech Articulation Tests; D013342:Stuttering / Q000503:physiopathology*; D013997:Time Factors