title: Brain activity in adults who stutter: similarities across speaking tasks and correlations with stuttering frequency and speaking rate.
abstract: Many differences in brain activity have been reported between persons who stutter (PWS) and typically fluent controls during oral reading tasks. An earlier meta-analysis of imaging studies identified stutter-related regions, but recent studies report less agreement with those regions. A PET study on adult dextral PWS (n=18) and matched fluent controls (CONT, n=12) is reported that used both oral reading and monologue tasks. After correcting for speech rate differences between the groups the task-activation differences were surprisingly small. For both analyses only some regions previously considered stutter-related were more activated in the PWS group than in the CONT group, and these were also activated during eyes-closed rest (ECR). In the PWS group, stuttering frequency was correlated with cortico-striatal-thalamic circuit activity in both speaking tasks. The neuroimaging findings for the PWS group, relative to the CONT group, appear consistent with neuroanatomic abnormalities being increasingly reported among PWS.
authors.affiliation: Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara, United States. rjingham@speech.ucsb.edu
authors.forename: Roger J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Ingham
authors.forename: Scott T
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Grafton
authors.forename: Anne K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Bothe
authors.forename: Janis C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Ingham
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001921:Brain / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011877:Radionuclide Imaging; D013060:Speech / Q000502:physiology*; D013068:Speech Production Measurement; D013342:Stuttering / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*