Inhibition and Working Memory Capacity in Adults Who Stutter

项目摘要 口吃被描述为一种多因素障碍，表现为自动， 流畅的计划和演讲。终身口吃对学业成绩有严重影响， 职业成功和社会心理健康。虽然早期干预可以成功地阻止这些 虽然治疗效果不佳，但许多接受治疗的儿童在成年后仍会口吃。不幸的是很多 口吃的成年人对治疗没有反应，而且人们对许多口吃的中介因素知之甚少。 有助于个体客户对干预的反应。 临床和认知心理学的最新进展已经考虑了执行功能的措施， 初步评估，以解释异质性，难以治疗的客户之间的一些变异性。执行 功能是一个潜在的调节因素，最近获得了理论和经验的兴趣相对 儿童口吃，他们在执行功能的两个关键但重叠的方面表现出弱点： 抑制和工作记忆容量。口吃的成年人也比不口吃的成年人表现更差 在需要有效抑制过程或依赖语音工作记忆的任务中，这表明， 早期执行功能缺陷仍然是成年后的一个问题，可能是一个敏感的预测因素， 治疗期间的成功。对执行功能的考虑可能对以下成年人更为重要： 口吃比儿童，因为传统和现代的治疗方法，老年客户严重依赖于 抑制控制（a）动作、思想或情绪，和/或（B）在工作中维持新的目标行为 记忆然而，迄今为止，执行功能相对于临床结果的预测价值， 口吃仍然被忽视。 为了弥补这一关键差距，拟议项目将采取初步措施，证明 执行功能与流畅性障碍的成功临床干预的基础行为。具体地说， 这项研究将检查成年人的工作记忆，这些成年人在抑制（1）言语和 非言语运动[目标1]，（2）与言语产生相关的侵入性消极认知[目标2]， （3）与言语产生有关的言语运动和消极认知，同时，类似 对于口吃成年人的日常言语产生[目标3]。这些拟议的实验研究将建立 为将来执行功能个体差异的全面临床研究提供重要的基线数据 在口吃的成年人中，并研究这些差异如何与特定的治疗策略相互作用。

Project Summary Stuttering is described as a multifactorial disorder that manifests as involuntary disruptions in the automatic, fluent planning and production of speech. Lifelong stuttering has a crippling impact on academic achievement, occupational success, and psychosocial wellness. Although early intervention can be successful to deter these negative outcomes, many children who receive treatment continue to stutter into adulthood. Unfortunately, many adults who stutter do not respond to treatment, and little is known about the mediating factors that many contribute to an individual client’s response to intervention. Recent advances in clinical and cognitive psychology have considered measures of executive function during initial assessment to account for some of the variability across heterogeneous, difficult-to-treat clients. Executive function is one potential moderating factor that has recently garnered theoretical and empirical interest relative to stuttering in children, who exhibit weaknesses in two critical but overlapping aspects of executive function: inhibition and working memory capacity. Adults who stutter also perform more poorly than non-stuttering adults during tasks that require efficient inhibition processes or rely on phonological working memory, suggesting that early executive function deficits remain a concern into adulthood and may serve as a sensitive predictor of success during treatment. Consideration of executive function may be of even greater importance to adults who stutter than children, as traditional and contemporary treatment approaches for older clients rely heavily on inhibitory control of (a) actions, thoughts, or emotions, and/or (b) maintaining new target behaviors in working memory. To date, however, the predictive value of executive function relative to clinical outcomes for adults who stutter remains overlooked. To address this critical gap, the proposed project will take the first steps in demonstrating the relevance of executive function to behaviors which underlie successful clinical intervention for fluency disorders. Specifically, this study will examine working memory in adults who do and do not stutter during inhibition of (1) speech and non-speech motor movements [Aim 1], (2) intrusive negative cognitions related to speech production [Aim 2], and (3) speech motor movement and negative cognitions related to speech production, simultaneously, similar to everyday speech production for adults who stutter [Aim 3]. These proposed experimental studies will establish important baseline data for future full-fledged clinical investigations of individual differences in executive function in adults who stutter, and examining how these differences may interact with specific treatment strategies.