Sexual dimorphism of neural development underlying childhood stuttering

描述（由申请人提供）：在理解儿童发育性口吃的神经基础方面存在根本性的差距，特别是关于为什么某些儿童自然恢复，而其他儿童在整个生命中继续口吃，以及为什么女孩比男孩恢复的可能性更大。这项研究的长期目标是确定口吃的神经标志物，并制定干预措施，导致言语行为和神经生理正常化。本申请的总体目标是确定接近症状发作的口吃的结构和功能神经标记物，并确定用于区分口吃儿童的性别特异性大脑发育轨迹标记物。中心假设是，男孩和女孩的持续口吃有较弱的结构和功能连接的大脑区域由左上级纵束包括腹侧运动前区和中央前运动区。从口吃中恢复的儿童预计会表现出随着年龄增长而变得越来越类似于对照组的大脑发育轨迹。另一方面，持续口吃的儿童预计会表现出较少的正常化，但右半球的补偿性连接。提出的研究的基本原理是，对口吃中复杂神经表型的更好理解可能最终导致识别用于开发治疗干预的神经靶点。因此，拟议的研究与NIH的使命的一部分有关，即发展基础知识以减少疾病和残疾的负担。在强有力的初步数据的指导下，中心假设将通过追求两个具体目标进行测试：1）确定儿童早期口吃的大脑结构和功能相关性; 2）确定表征口吃持续性的性别特异性神经标志物。对于这两个目标，扩散张量成像和功能连接分析中已经建立的方法将用于获取客观的大脑数据，这些数据将从尽可能接近口吃发作的男孩和女孩开始纵向采集。拟议的工作具有潜在的创新性，因为它将是第一系列专门用于确定儿童早期发育性口吃风险和持续性的性二态性和神经基础的研究。这一结果将是重要的，因为它们将提供关于大脑发育和性别与口吃持续性和恢复之间关系的新信息。这些结果将产生重要的积极影响，因为它们将为早期诊断提供标志物，并指导未来的研究，以确定特定的神经靶点，用于治疗口吃的男孩和女孩。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): There is a fundamental gap in understanding the neural bases for childhood developmental stuttering, particularly with respect to why certain children recover naturally whereas others continue to stutter throughout life and why there is a greater probability of recovery among girls than boys. The long-term goal in this research is to identify neural markers for stuttering and to develop interventions that lead to behavioral and neurophysiological normalization in speech. The overall objective in this application is to identify structural and functional neural markers of stuttering close to symptom onset and determine gender-specific brain developmental trajectory markers that serve to differentiate those children who do or do not recover from stuttering. The central hypothesis is that both boys and girls with persistent stuttering have weaker structural and functional connectivity in brain regions interconnected by the left superior longitudinal fasciculus encompassing ventral premotor and precentral motor areas. Children who recover from stuttering are expected to exhibit developmental brain trajectories that become increasingly similar to controls with increasing age. On the other hand, children who continue to stutter are expected to exhibit less normalization, but a compensatory connectivity in the right hemisphere. The rationale that underlies the proposed research is that an improved understanding of the complex neural phenotypes in stuttering may ultimately lead to identification of neural targets for developing therapeutic interventions. Thus, the proposed research is relevant to that part of NIH's mission that pertains to developing fundamental knowledge to reduce the burdens of illness and disability. Guided by strong preliminary data, the central hypotheses will be tested by pursuing two specific aims: 1) Determine brain structural and functional correlates of early childhood stuttering; and 2) Determine gender-specific neural markers that characterize stuttering persistence. For both aims, already established methods in diffusion tensor imaging and functional connectivity analyses will be used to acquire objective brain data, which will be taken longitudinally from boys and girls beginning as close as possible to stuttering onset. The proposed work is potentially innovative, as it will be the first series of studies designed specifically to identify the sexual dimorphism and the neural bases of risk and persistence of developmental stuttering during early childhood. The results will be significant, because they will provide novel information on the correlation of brain development and gender with stuttering persistence versus recovery. Such results will have an important positive impact, as they will provide markers for early diagnosis and guide future research in identifying specific neural targets for therapy that may differ for boys versus girls who stutter.