Neural control and sensorimotor mechanisms in stuttering

描述（由申请人提供）：了解口吃的基本神经机制被广泛认为是诊断和治疗的基础。这一重要知识所需的基石是一个理论框架的口吃，占各种主要的和相关的语音特征，这是符合实验验证模型的感觉运动控制和神经功能。本文提出的研究计划采取了一种全面的神经生物学方法，通过一系列理论动机，假设驱动的实验来解释口吃的神经基础。平行的心理物理学（运动学，感觉运动适应，机械/感觉扰动）和神经成像（fMRI）实验将进行，以解决选定的方面的言语感觉运动控制，根据我们的理论框架，可能涉及口吃。这一系列实验研究的具体目的是调查口吃者与不口吃者（a）获得和巩固神经表征的能力（即，内部模型），（B）将听觉和动觉传入信号整合到语音感觉运动控制的前馈和反馈组件中的效率，以及（c）激活时间过程和语音产生背后的神经基质的功能连接。这是一个合作研究计划，由具有重叠和互补专业领域的科学家组成，他们在两个表演场地使用最先进的仪器指导研究小组。结合这些网站的专业知识和资源，将允许在行为，生理和神经操作水平上对口吃和非口吃儿童和成人的感觉运动系统进行创新调查。这些深入的研究有可能为口吃者的言语运动控制系统的发展和状态提供信息，并为研究和临床管理提出新的方向。因此，这项工作与公共卫生的直接相关性在于它有助于理解口吃背后的神经机制，并通过产生这种新的见解促进了诊断和治疗方法的改进。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Understanding the basic neural mechanisms underlying stuttering is widely acknowledged as fundamental to informed diagnosis and treatment. The required cornerstone for this important knowledge is a theoretical framework of stuttering that accounts for various primary and associated speech characteristics and that is consistent with empirically-verified models of sensorimotor control and neural functioning. The research program proposed here takes a comprehensive neurobiological approach to explaining the neural basis of stuttering through an integrated series of theoretically-motivated, hypothesis-driven experiments. Parallel psychophysical (kinematics, sensorimotor adaptation, mechanical/sensory perturbations) and neuroimaging (fMRI) experiments will be conducted to address selected aspects of speech sensorimotor control that, according to our theoretical framework, may be implicated in stuttering. Specific aims of the series of experimental studies are to investigate in individuals who do vs. who do not stutter (a) the ability to acquire and consolidate neural representations (i.e., internal models) of the mappings between central motor commands to the vocal tract musculature and the sensory consequences of those actions, (b) the efficiency of integrating auditory and kinesthetic afferent signals into both the feedforward and feedback components of speech sensorimotor control, and (c) the activation time course and functional connectivity of the neural substrates underlying speech production. This is a collaborative program of research by scientists who have overlapping as well as complementary areas of expertise and who direct research groups using state-of-the-art instrumentation at two performance sites. Combining the expertise and resources from these sites will allow innovative investigations of the sensorimotor systems of stuttering and nonstuttering children and adults at behavioral, physiological, and neural levels of operation. These in-depth studies have the potential to inform on the development and state of the speech motor control system in individuals who stutter, and to suggest new directions for research and clinical management. Thus, this work's direct relevance to public health lies in its contributions to understanding the neural mechanisms underlying stuttering and-by generating such new insights-facilitating the development of improved approaches to diagnosis and treatment.