Supplement to Attentional control in children who stutter

项目总结 口吃是一种神经发育障碍，会对沟通和质量造成毁灭性的后果 生活的一部分。口吃的病因受遗传因素和表观遗传因素之间的动态相互作用的影响， 包括言语运动控制、情绪调节、认知-语言过程和环境因素。 目前的项目重点是口吃儿童(CWS)的注意力控制，这是一种对 调节并保持对刺激或任务的注意力。CWS中的非典型注意控制，由 口吃的理论模型，得到了最近非典型神经连接的经验证据的支持 注意力和躯体运动网络。然而，目前还不知道这些非典型的连接模式是如何 影响CWS注意力的神经功能，这可能会影响流利的言语产生。减少或 CWS的注意力控制不协调，他们的言语运动系统脆弱，可能导致 通过影响言语产生的目标导向行为的启动或维持而产生的不流利的言语。 目前的建议通过评估不同的CWS来扩展先前的CWS的行为和神经成像发现 同一儿童的注意控制系统，以阐明5至8岁儿童注意控制的性质。 将评估三个不同的注意力控制系统，它们共同调节注意力：警报(反应 对刺激)、定向(指向刺激)和执行控制(保持目标导向 行为和反应抑制)。注意力控制将使用一组行为和 神经生理学任务。这项建议的具体目标是：(1)描述和对比神经过程 CWS和流利同伴的基本不同的注意控制系统。神经生理数据(与事件相关 脑电位[ERPs])将在注意力控制任务中获得，以评估不同的 神经加工的注意控制系统。(2)对CWS的注意控制特征进行表征和对比 和流利的同行。一组多重和互补的任务将评估不同注意力的表现 控制任务。(3)初步建立和评价了CWS的注意控制模型。两国之间的关系 事件相关电位和行为表现以及父母在CWS中的行为报告将被用来构建潜在的 注意力控制因素，并确定这些因素中的哪一个最能预测口吃的严重程度。 包括父母报告将支持我们的研究结果转化为临床环境。 这个项目将确定不同的注意力控制系统，或者更广泛的注意力控制系统， 在CWS中是非典型的。该项目将为未来的研究奠定基础，提出两个长期目标：1) 对年轻CWS患者注意控制随时间变化的评估，导致预测能力的改进 持久性与恢复性的因素，以及2)加强传统治疗方法 整合CWS中不同的注意力系统，并最有力地预测口吃的严重程度，从而通知 开发最具潜力的循证治疗方案，以最大限度地提高CWS的疗效。

PROJECT SUMMARY Stuttering is a neurodevelopmental disorder with devastating consequences on communication and quality of life. The etiology of stuttering is influenced by dynamic interactions between genetic and epigenetic factors, including speech motor control, emotion regulation, cognitive-linguistic processes, and environmental factors. The current project focuses on attentional control in children who stutter (CWS), a cognitive skill critical for regulating and maintaining attention toward a stimulus or task. Atypical attentional control in CWS, indicated by theoretical models of stuttering, is supported by recent empirical evidence of atypical neural connectivity between attention and somatomotor networks. However, it is not yet known how these atypical connectivity patterns impact neural functions for attention in CWS, which may impact fluent speech productions. Reduced or discoordinated attentional control in CWS, who have vulnerable speech motor systems, may contribute to disfluent speech by affecting initiation or maintenance of the goal-directed actions of speech production. The current proposal extends previous behavioral and neuroimaging findings in CWS by evaluating distinct attentional control systems in the same child to elucidate the nature of attentional control in 5- to 8-year-old CWS. Three distinct attentional control systems, which together regulate attention, will be assessed: Alerting (response to a stimulus), Orienting (directing toward a stimulus), and Executive Control (maintaining goal-directed behaviors and response inhibition). Attentional control will be evaluated using a battery of behavioral and neurophysiological tasks. The specific aims of this proposal are: (1) Characterize and contrast neural processes underlying distinct attentional control systems in CWS and fluent peers. Neurophysiological data (event-related brain potentials [ERPs]) will be acquired during attentional control tasks to evaluate the effects of distinct attentional control system on neural processing. (2) Characterize and contrast attentional control profiles in CWS and fluent peers. A battery of multiple and complementary tasks will evaluate performance on distinct attentional control tasks. (3) Develop and evaluate a preliminary model of attentional control in CWS. Relationships between ERP and behavioral performance as well as parental reports of behavior in CWS will be used to construct latent attentional control factors and determine which of these factors most strongly predicts stuttering severity. Including parental reports will support translation of our findings to clinical settings. This project will establish whether distinct attentional control systems, or attentional control more broadly, are atypical in CWS. This project will lay the groundwork for future research informing two long-term goals: 1) The evaluation of changes in attentional control over time in younger CWS, leading to refinement of predictive factors of persistence versus recovery, and 2) The enhancement of traditional treatment approaches to incorporate attention systems that differ in CWS and most strongly predict stuttering severity, thereby informing development of evidence-based treatment programs with the greatest potential to maximize outcomes in CWS.