Stuttered and fluent speech production: An ALE meta‐analysis of functional neuroimaging studies

Abstract

Abstract:This study reports an activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analysis of imaging studies of chronic developmental stuttering in adults. Two parallel meta-analyses were carried out: (1) stuttered production in the stutterers; (2) fluent production in the control subjects. The control subjects' data replicated previous analyses of single-word reading, identifying activation in primary motor cortex, premotor cortex, supplementary motor area, Rolandic operculum, lateral cerebellum, and auditory areas, among others. The stuttering subjects' analysis showed that similar brain areas are involved in stuttered speech as in fluent speech, but with some important differences. Motor areas were over-activated in stuttering, including primary motor cortex, supplementary motor area, cingulate motor area, and cerebellar vermis. Frontal operculum, Rolandic operculum, and anterior insula showed anomalous rightlaterality in stutterers. Auditory activations, due to hearing one's own speech, were essentially undetectable in stutterers. The phenomenon of efference copy is proposed as a unifying account of the pattern activation revealed within this ALE meta-analysis. This provides the basis for a stuttering system model that is testable and should help to advance the understanding and treatment of this disorder. Hum Brain Mapp 25:105-117, 2005.

The neural substrates for atypical planning and execution of word production in stuttering

“…First, previous research identified the overactivation of the right cerebellum as a neural signature of stuttering (Brown et al, 2005) and as specific to stuttered speech (Braun et al, 1997;Fox et al, 1996). Although the participants in this study produced fluent speech during the experiment, we also found overactivation in the right cerebllum.…”

“…In a previous meta-analysis, the right IFG and anterior insula were, as a whole, considered to be one of the neural signatures of stuttering (Brown et al, 2005). Our results, however, suggest that their roles in stuttering may be different.…”

“…However, it is still unclear what the neural substrates for atypical planning or execution are and how the neural substrates for the two atypical processes interact with each other. Previous brain imaging studies have revealed widely distributed neural differences between stuttering and non-stuttering speakers, such as the the over-activation in the right frontal operculum/anterior insula and the right cerebellum, absent activation in the bilateral auditory areas, and increased or decreased activation in the motor areas and the basal ganglia (Brown et al, 2005;De Nil et al, 2008Fox et al, 2000;Ingham et al, 2000Ingham et al, , 2004Neumann et al, 2003;Wu et al, 1995). However, it is not clear which of the above neural differences are associated with atypical planning, execution, or interface between them.…”

Altered resting‐state functional connectivity of the putamen and internal globus pallidus is related to speech impairment in Parkinson's disease

“…It is well established that speech production involves the sensorimotor cortex, SMA, inferior frontal gyrus/ventral premotor cortex (PMv), superior temporal gyrus (STG)/Heschl's gyrus, and cerebellum (Brown, Ingham, Ingham, Laird, & Fox, 2005; Brown et al., 2009; Manes et al., 2014; Tourville & Guenther, 2011) These regions of the cortex are reliably active during speech and voice production tasks (Brown et al., 2005; Manes et al., 2014; Spaniol et al., 2009). Studies of whole‐brain resting‐state connectivity in PD have documented that the basal ganglia have abnormal connectivity to the cerebellum (Hacker, Perlmutter, Criswell, Ances, & Snyder, 2012) and motor cortices, including sensorimotor cortex (Baudrexel et al., 2011; Hacker et al., 2012; Kurani et al., 2015; Kwak et al., 2010), premotor cortex (Baudrexel et al., 2011), and SMA (Baudrexel et al., 2011; Hacker et al., 2012; Kwak et al., 2010).…”

“…New et al. (2015) found that PD subjects had reduced connectivity between right and left putamen after performing a seed to seed resting‐state connectivity analysis on thirteen regions involved in vocal motor control (Brown et al., 2005). The study further found that UPDRS Part III speech impairment scores were inversely correlated with right putamen connectivity to right cerebellum and left STG.…”