title: Atypical central auditory speech-sound discrimination in children who stutter as indexed by the mismatch negativity.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Recent theoretical conceptualizations suggest that disfluencies in stuttering may arise from several factors, one of them being atypical auditory processing. The main purpose of the present study was to investigate whether speech sound encoding and central auditory discrimination, are affected in children who stutter (CWS).
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants were 10 CWS, and 12 typically developing children with fluent speech (TDC). Event-related potentials (ERPs) for syllables and syllable changes [consonant, vowel, vowel-duration, frequency (F0), and intensity changes], critical in speech perception and language development of CWS were compared to those of TDC.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There were no significant group differences in the amplitudes or latencies of the P1 or N2 responses elicited by the standard stimuli. However, the Mismatch Negativity (MMN) amplitude was significantly smaller in CWS than in TDC. For TDC all deviants of the linguistic multifeature paradigm elicited significant MMN amplitudes, comparable with the results found earlier with the same paradigm in 6-year-old children. In contrast, only the duration change elicited a significant MMN in CWS.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results showed that central auditory speech-sound processing was typical at the level of sound encoding in CWS. In contrast, central speech-sound discrimination, as indexed by the MMN for multiple sound features (both phonetic and prosodic), was atypical in the group of CWS. Findings were linked to existing conceptualizations on stuttering etiology.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The reader will be able (a) to describe recent findings on central auditory speech-sound processing in individuals who stutter, (b) to describe the measurement of auditory reception and central auditory speech-sound discrimination, (c) to describe the findings of central auditory speech-sound discrimination, as indexed by the mismatch negativity (MMN), in children who stutter.
authors: Department of Behavioural Sciences and Philosophy, Logopedics, University of Turku, Finland; Department of Clinical Neurophysiology, Oulu University Hospital, Finland. Electronic address: eira.jansson-verkasalo@utu.fi.
authors: Eira
authors: E
authors: Jansson-Verkasalo
authors: Department of Speech-Language Therapy and Audiology, Thomas More University College Antwerp, Belgium. Electronic address: kurt.eggers@thomasmore.be.
authors: Kurt
authors: K
authors: Eggers
authors: Department of Clinical Neurophysiology, Oulu University Hospital, Finland. Electronic address: anujarve84@gmail.com.
authors: Anu
authors: A
authors: Järvenpää
authors: Department of Clinical Neurophysiology, Oulu University Hospital, Finland. Electronic address: vlkalervo.suominen@gmail.com.
authors: Kalervo
authors: K
authors: Suominen
authors: Department of Psychology, Tilburg University, The Netherlands; Department of Psychology, University of Leuven, Belgium. Electronic address: Bea.vdnBergh@uvt.nl.
authors: Bea
authors: B
authors: Van den Bergh
authors: School of Graduate Studies, University of Toronto, Canada; Experimental Otorinolaryngology, Department of Neurosciences, University of Leuven, Belgium. Electronic address: luc.denil@sgs.utoronto.ca.
authors: Luc
authors: L
authors: De Nil
authors: Cicero Learning, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland; Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Institute of Behavioural Sciences, University of Helsinki, Finland. Electronic address: Teija.m.kujala@helsinki.fi.
authors: Teija
authors: T
authors: Kujala
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D001307:Auditory Perception; D002648:Child; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials; D005072:Evoked Potentials, Auditory; D005260:Female; D005387:Finland; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010700:Phonetics; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013060:Speech; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology; D013342:Stuttering / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*
keywords: Central speech-sound discrimination; Children; Event-related potential; Mismatch negativity; Stuttering