title: Psychophysiological responses of adults who do not stutter while listening to stuttering.
abstract: The present study examined the psychophysiological responses of fluent listeners to stuttered speech. Specifically, skin conductance and heart rate changes were measured from adults who do not stutter while watching one-minute video speech samples of persons stutter read aloud. Fifteen adult participants observed three stuttered and three fluent speech samples, presented in random order with a two-minute interstimulus intervals. Results revealed that observing stuttered speech evoked a significant increase in skin conductance and a significant deceleration in heart rate relative to watching fluent speech samples. These findings suggest that listeners are physiologically aroused by stuttering and appear to maintain feelings of unpleasantness to stuttered speech. Further, deceleration in heart rate during stuttered samples also suggest that listeners may be paying more attention to the stuttered speech samples as compared to the fluent speech samples. We speculate that aberrant and anomalous stuttering behaviors probably simulate the mirror neuronal mechanism eliciting the emotional arousal associated within them. Such physiological arousal may provide the emotional genesis to the listener's negative stereotypical perceptions towards people who stutter.
authors.affiliation: Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, East Carolina University, Oglesby Drive, Greenville, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Vijaya K
authors.initials: VK
authors.lastname: Guntupalli
authors.forename: Joseph
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kalinowski
authors.forename: Chayadevie
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Nanjundeswaran
authors.forename: Tim
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Saltuklaroglu
authors.forename: D Erik
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Everhart
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D004562:Electrocardiography / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D005712:Galvanic Skin Response / Q000502:physiology; D006309:Hearing / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011601:Psychophysics; D013060:Speech / Q000502:physiology*; D013068:Speech Production Measurement / Q000379:methods; D013342:Stuttering