title: Regional brain activity change predicts responsiveness to treatment for stuttering in adults.
abstract: Developmental stuttering is known to be associated with aberrant brain activity, but there is no evidence that this knowledge has benefited stuttering treatment. This study investigated whether brain activity could predict progress during stuttering treatment for 21 dextral adults who stutter (AWS). They received one of two treatment programs that included periodic H2(15)O PET scanning (during oral reading, monologue, and eyes-closed rest conditions). All participants successfully completed an initial treatment phase and then entered a phase designed to transfer treatment gains; 9/21 failed to complete this latter phase. The 12 pass and 9 fail participants were similar on speech and neural system variables before treatment, and similar in speech performance after the initial phase of their treatment. At the end of the initial treatment phase, however, decreased activation within a single region, L. putamen, in all 3 scanning conditions was highly predictive of successful treatment progress.
authors.affiliation: Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA. Electronic address: rjingham@speech.ucsb.edu.
authors.forename: Roger J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Ingham
authors.forename: Yuedong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Janis C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Ingham
authors.forename: Anne K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Bothe
authors.forename: Scott T
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Grafton
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography; D013070:Speech Therapy; D013342:Stuttering / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: %SS; AUC; AWS; CONT; E; FDR; FG; MONO; MPI; Monologue; NAT; Oral reading; PET; PG; PS; PT; READ; REST; ROC; SFSPM; Stuttering; T; TRPI; Treatment; adults who stutter; area under the curve; controls; establishment; eyes closed rest; fail group; false discovery rate; modifying phonation intervals; monologue; oral reading; pass group; percent syllables stuttered; pretreatment; prolonged speech; receiver operating characteristics; speech naturalness; stutter-free syllables spoken per minute; target range phonated interval; transfer