Neuroanatomical and behavioral anomalies in persistent developmental stuttering

该项目旨在系统地研究人的大脑结构异常之间的关系， 口吃者（PWS）和言语运动系统的功能特性。该项目的方法建立在 最近关于白色物质（WM）不规则和其他神经解剖异常的重要发现， PWS通过尝试识别言语过程中这些异常的行为（运动学和声学）相关性 和其他运动任务，并通过提供这些发现的机械解释， 建立了语音神经基础的计算建模框架。 该项目是由两个相互关联的实验研究，利用结构神经成像 结合行为测量来研究理论上有动机的假设， 神经缺陷导致口吃神经成像包括使用磁共振成像， 在PWS和匹配的fluent对照中进行扩散张量成像，以获得一组受试者特定的测量结果， 候选神经解剖学标志物（白色和灰质结构特性的定量测量） 根据先前的发现。第一项调查研究了神经解剖学标志物之间的相关性， 反映前馈运动控制的行为测量：收集的运动学和反应时间（RT）数据 当他们完成精心设计的简单RT和演讲任务时，第二 调查研究神经解剖学标志物和听觉反馈的使用之间的相关性， 语音：收集的受试者对实时频谱和时间扰动的反应数据， 他们自己的言语的听觉反馈。这两项调查还将测试措施的差异 PWS组和对照组之间的差异，并将考虑替代假设。 建立口吃的行为和神经解剖学异常之间的关系， 深入了解可能导致或增强潜在神经功能表达的重要结构底物， 赤字不同的神经结构和神经功能因素的组合可以表现出来 从情绪到动作触发和时机的故障，都对口吃产生了一系列影响。

This project aims to systematically investigate relationships between structural anomalies in brains of persons who stutter (PWS) and functional properties of the speech motor system. The project's approach builds on recent important findings regarding white matter (WM) irregularities and other neuroanatomical anomalies in PWS by attempting to identify behavioral (kinematic and acoustic) correlates of these anomalies during speech and other auditory-motor tasks, and by providing mechanistic interpretations of these findings within an established computational modeling framework of the neural bases of speech. The project is comprised of two inter-related experimental investigations that utilize structural neuroimaging in combination with behavioral measures to investigate theoretically motivated hypotheses concerning possible neural deficits underlying stuttering. The neuroimaging involves the use of magnetic resonance imaging and diffusion tensor imaging in PWS and matched fluent controls to obtain subject-specific measures of a set of candidate neuroanatomical markers (quantitative measures of structural properties of white and gray matter) derived from prior findings. The first investigation studies correlations between the neuroanatomical markers and behavioral measures reflecting feedforward motor control: kinematic and reaction-time (RT) data collected from the subject groups while they perform carefully designed, simple RT and speech tasks. The second investigation studies correlations between the neuroanatomical markers and the use of auditory feedback in speech: data collected on the subjects' responses to real-time spectral and temporal perturbations in the auditory feedback of their own speech. Both investigations will also test for differences in the measures between the groups of PWS and controls, and will consider alternative hypotheses. Establishing relations between behavioral and neuroanatomical anomalies in stuttering should provide new insights into important structural substrates that could lead to or potentiate the expression of underlying neurofunctional deficits. Different combinations of neuro-structural and neuro-functional factors could be manifested in a range of influences on stuttering, from emotions to malfunctions of movement triggering and timing.