Persistent developmental stuttering as a cortical-subcortical dysfunction: evidence from muscle activation

BACKGROUND: One contemporary view of stuttering posits that speech disfluencies arise from anomalous speech motor control. PURPOSE: To verify the rest muscle tension and speech reaction time of fluent and stuttering adults. METHOD: 22 adults, divided in two groups: G1 - 11 fluent individuals; G2 - 11 stutterers. Electromyography recordings (inferior orbicularis oris) were collected in two different situations: during rest and in a reaction time activity. RESULTS: The groups were significantly different considering rest muscle tension (G2 higher recordings) and did not differ when considering speech reaction time and muscle activity during speech. There was a strong positive correlation between speech reaction time and speech muscle activity for G2 - the longer the speech reaction time, the higher the muscle activity during speech. CONCLUSION: In addition to perceptible episodes of speech disfluency, stutterers exhibit anomalies in speech motor output during fluent speech. Correlations with a possible cortical-subcortical disorder are discussed.

Bibliographic Details

Main Authors:	Andrade,Claudia Regina Furquim de, Sassi,Fernanda Chiarion, Juste,Fabiola, Mendonça,Lucia Iracema Zanotto de
Format:	Digital revista
Language:	English
Published:	Academia Brasileira de Neurologia - ABNEURO 2008
Online Access:	http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0004-282X2008000500010
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