UCL Discovery
UCL home » Library Services » Electronic resources » UCL Discovery

Children who stutter show reduced action-related activity in the rostral cingulate zone

Harrewijn, A; Schel, MA; Boelens, H; Nater, CM; Haggard, P; Crone, EA; (2017) Children who stutter show reduced action-related activity in the rostral cingulate zone. Neuropsychologia , 96 pp. 213-221. 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2017.01.022. Green open access

[thumbnail of Haggard_Voluntary action control and stuttering_finalversionmanuscript.pdf]
Preview
Text
Haggard_Voluntary action control and stuttering_finalversionmanuscript.pdf - Accepted Version

Download (1MB) | Preview

Abstract

Previous studies have indicated that children who stutter show not only speech-related problems, but also wider difficulties in self-control. In this study we test the novel hypothesis that children who stutter may experience difficulties with inhibitory control over voluntary actions. We used functional MRI to compare brain activity between children who stutter and children who do not stutter in a task that captures key cognitive aspects of voluntary action control. Participants performed a rolling marble task, in which they were instructed to press a key to stop a rolling marble from crashing on some of the trials (instructed action condition). They were also asked to choose voluntarily whether to execute or inhibit this prepotent response in other trials (volition condition). Children who stutter reported less motor and cognitive impulsivity and had shorter stop-signal reaction times when controlled for IQ, consistent with greater inhibition, compared to children who do not stutter. At the neural level, children who stutter showed decreased activation in the rostral cingulate zone during voluntary action selection compared to children who do not stutter. This effect was more pronounced for children who were rated as showing more stuttered syllables in the stutter screening, and was furthermore correlated with stop-signal reaction times and impulsivity ratings. These findings suggest that stuttering in childhood could reflect wider difficulties in self-control, also in the non-verbal domain. Understanding these neural mechanisms could potentially lead to more focused treatments of stuttering.

Type: Article
Title: Children who stutter show reduced action-related activity in the rostral cingulate zone
Location: England
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2017.01.022
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2017....
Language: English
Additional information: Copyright © 2017. This manuscript version is published under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial Non-derivative 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). This licence allows you to share, copy, distribute and transmit the work for personal and non-commercial use providing author and publisher attribution is clearly stated. Further details about CC BY licences are available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0. Access may be initially restricted by the publisher.
Keywords: rostral cingulate zone, stuttering, voluntary action control
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences > Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1538671
Downloads since deposit
161Downloads
Download activity - last month
Download activity - last 12 months
Downloads by country - last 12 months

Archive Staff Only

View Item View Item