• Corpus ID: 212508862

A Typical Anatomy of the Hand Representation in Adults who Stutter

@inproceedings{Foundas2016ATA,
  title={A Typical Anatomy of the Hand Representation in Adults who Stutter},
  author={LA Foundas and C. E. Baucom and T Knaus and Deborah A. Corey},
  year={2016}
}

• LA Foundas, C. Baucom, +1 author Deborah A. Corey
• Published 2016
• Psychology, Linguistics

Developmental stuttering is characterized by dysfluent speech that includes repetitions, blocks, and prolongations of speech sounds, and associated involuntary and/or ancillary movements. Converging evidence has shown neuronal activity is reduced in the auditory temporal cortex and increased in right hemisphere speech-motor control areas in Adults Who Stutter (AWS) [1-6]. These atypical patterns of neural activation may result in dissociations between auditory speech perception and motor planning. It is unclear whether the consistently observed right hemisphere over-activity and the reduced pattern of lateralization of function is a cause, consequence, or correlate of stuttering. Whether hand preference moderates these atypical functional patterns has not been determined, as most imaging studies have excluded left-handers, and have not characterized the degree of hand preference in right-handers. Atypical handedness and reaction times have been reported in behavioral studies with AWS showing difficulty with bimanual tasks [7-8], slower reaction times for phonatory non-language but not for finger responses [9-11], finger tapping or sequential finger movements [12]. One implication is that the dysfluency of stuttering may be a manifestation of a more general dysfunction in motor organization and planning. There is evidence that left-handers or less consistent right-handers may be over-represented among individuals with a diagnosis of persistent developmental stuttering [13-16], although several studies have not found an association between handedness and stuttering [17-20].