title: Autonomic nervous system activity of preschool-age children who stutter.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this study was to investigate potential differences in autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity to emotional stimuli between preschool-age children who do (CWS) and do not stutter (CWNS).
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants were 20 preschool-age CWS (15 male) and 21 preschool-age CWNS (11 male). Participants were exposed to two emotion-inducing video clips (negative and positive) with neutral clips used to establish pre-and post-arousal baselines, and followed by age-appropriate speaking tasks. Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA)-often used as an index of parasympathetic activity-and skin conductance level (SCL)-often used as an index of sympathetic activity-were measured while participants listened to/watched the audio-video clip presentation and performed a speaking task.
  
  
  RESULTS
  CWS, compared to CWNS, displayed lower amplitude RSA at baseline and higher SCL during a speaking task following the positive, compared to the negative, condition. During speaking, only CWS had a significant positive relation between RSA and SCL.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Present findings suggest that preschool-age CWS, when compared to their normally fluent peers, have a physiological state that is characterized by a greater vulnerability to emotional reactivity (i.e., lower RSA indexing less parasympathetic tone) and a greater mobilization of resources in support of emotional reactivity (i.e., higher SCL indexing more sympathetic activity) during positive conditions. Thus, while reducing stuttering to a pure physiological process is unwarranted, the present findings suggest that the autonomic nervous system is involved.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The reader will be able to: (a) summarize current empirical evidence on the role of emotion in childhood stuttering; (b) describe physiological indexes of sympathetic and parasympathetic activity; (c) summarize how preschool-age children who stutter differ from preschool-age children who do not stutter in autonomic activity; (d) discuss possible implications of current findings in relation to the development of childhood stuttering.
authors.affiliation: Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, Vanderbilt University, United States. Electronic address: robin.m.jones@vanderbilt.edu.
authors.forename: Robin M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.affiliation: Department of Communicative Disorders, University of Alabama, United States.
authors.forename: Anthony P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Buhr
authors.affiliation: Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, Vanderbilt University, United States.
authors.forename: Edward G
authors.initials: EG
authors.lastname: Conture
authors.affiliation: Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Syracuse University, United States.
authors.forename: Victoria
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Tumanova
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Human Development, Vanderbilt University, United States.
authors.forename: Tedra A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Walden
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, United States.
authors.forename: Stephen W
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Porges
mesh_terms: D001341:Autonomic Nervous System / Q000502:physiology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013060:Speech; D013342:Stuttering / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D013694:Temperament
keywords: Preschool-age; Respiratory sinus arrhythmia; Skin conductance; Stuttering
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