Tuesday, November 03, 2009

New results from Lu et al.

Yet again we have new brain imaging work from China. More news as soon as I have read the article.

Exp Neurol. 2009 Oct 28.

The Neural Substrates for Atypical Planning and Execution of Word Production in Stuttering.

State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.
Using an fMRI-based classification approach and the structural equation modeling (SEM) method, this study examined the neural bases of atypical planning and execution processes involved in stuttering. 12 stuttering speakers and 12 controls were asked to name pictures under different conditions (single-syllable, multi-syllable, or repeated-syllable) in the scanner. The contrasts between conditions provided information about planning and execution processes. The classification analysis showed that, as compared to non-stuttering controls, stuttering speakers' atypical planning of speech was evident in their neural activities in the bilateral inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and right putamen and their atypical execution of speech was evident in their activations in the right cerebellum and insula, left premotor area (PMA) and angular gyrus (AG). SEM results further revealed two parallel neural circuits-the basal ganglia-IFG/PMA circuit and the cerebellum-PMA circuit-that were involved in atypical planning and execution processes of stuttering, respectively. The AG appeared to be involved in the interface of atypical planning and execution in stuttering. These results are discussed in terms of their implications to the theories about stuttering and to clinical applications.
PMID: 19879262

1 comment:

Jonah said...

Interesting... not sure if I understood the whole of the article but I have often wondered if there was a flaw in "how" I put together my thoughts in certain situations (i.e. planning) and if this, in fact, was having an effect on my fluency level. It would explain why I am nearly perfectly fluent when reading but have difficulty when ad-libbing.

Also, my disfluency began at the age of 14 or so... I did not have childhood symptoms.

Anyone have any comments?