title: Reorganization of brain function after a short-term behavioral intervention for stuttering.
abstract: This study investigated changes in brain function that occurred over a 7-day behavioral intervention for adults who stutter (AWS). Thirteen AWS received the intervention (AWS+), and 13 AWS did not receive the intervention (AWS-). There were 13 fluent controls (FC-). All participants were scanned before and after the intervention. Whole-brain analysis pre-intervention showed significant differences in task-related brain activation between AWS and FC- in the right inferior frontal cortex (IFC) and left middle temporal cortex, but there were no differences between the two AWS groups. Across the 7-day period of the intervention, AWS+ alone showed a significant increase of brain activation in the left ventral IFC/insula. There were no changes in brain function for the other two groups. Further analysis revealed that the change did not correlate with resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) that AWS showed in the cerebellum (Lu et al., 2012). However, both changes in task-related brain function and RSFC correlated with changes in speech fluency level. Together, these findings suggest that functional reorganization in a brain region close to the left IFC that shows anomalous function in AWS, occurs after a short-term behavioral intervention for stuttering.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China. Electronic address: luchunming@bnu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Chunming
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Lifen
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Yuhang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Long
authors.affiliation: Stuttering Therapy Center, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Qian
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Guosheng
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Danling
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Peng
authors.affiliation: Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, UK.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Howell
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002531:Cerebellum / Q000503:physiopathology; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D013060:Speech / Q000502:physiology*; D013070:Speech Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D013342:Stuttering / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000503:physiopathology; D016896:Treatment Outcome
keywords: Cerebellum; Inferior frontal cortex; Intervention; Reorganization; Stuttering