Speech Disfluency-dependent Amygdala Activity in Adults Who Stutter: Neuroimaging of Interpersonal Communication in MRI Scanner Environment

Publication date: 15 March 2018 Source:Neuroscience, Volume 374 Author(s): Akira Toyomura, Tetsunoshin Fujii, Koichi Yokosawa, Shinya Kuriki Affective states, such as anticipatory anxiety, critically influence speech communication behavior in adults who stutter. However, there is currently little evidence regarding the involvement of the limbic system in speech disfluency during interpersonal communication. We designed this neuroimaging study and experimental procedure to sample neural activity during interpersonal communication between human participants, and to investigate the relationship between the amygdala activity and speech disfluency. Participants were required to engage in live communication with a stranger of the opposite sex in the MRI scanner environment. In the gaze condition, the stranger gazed at the participant without speaking, while in the live conversation condition, the stranger asked questions that the participant was required to answer. The stranger continued to gaze silently at the participant while the participant answered. Adults who stutter reported significantly higher discomfort than fluent controls during the experiment. Activity in the right amygdala, a key anatomical region in the limbic system involved in emotion, was significantly correlated with stuttering occurrences in adults who stutter. Right amygdala activity from pooled data of all participants also showed a significant correlation with discomfort level during the experiment. Act...

Source: Neuroscience - February 15, 2018 Category: Neuroscience Source Type: research