Sympathetic arousal as a marker of chronicity in childhood stuttering

Zengin-Bolatkale, Hatun; Conture, Edward G.; Walden, Tedra A.; Jones, Robin M.

doi:10.1080/87565641.2018.1432621

Cited by 25 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 78 publications

(115 reference statements)

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“…A recent longitudinal study revealed significantly higher sympathetic arousal in CWS-eP compared with CWS-eR during a stressful naming task. 24 More longi- tudinal research examining whether heightened sympathetic activity in some CWS represents an early biomarker of chronicity is merited.…”

Section: Experimental Level: Neurobiological Clues Into the Processesmentioning

confidence: 99%

What Are Predictors for Persistence in Childhood Stuttering?

et al. 2018

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Over the past 10 years, we (the Purdue Stuttering Project) have implemented longitudinal studies to examine factors related to persistence and recovery in early childhood stuttering. Stuttering develops essentially as an impairment in speech sensorimotor processes that is strongly influenced by dynamic interactions among motor, language, and emotional domains. Our work has assessed physiological, behavioral, and clinical features of stuttering within the motor, linguistic, and emotional domains. We describe the results of studies in which measures collected when the child was 4 to 5 years old are related to eventual stuttering status. We provide supplemental evidence of the role of known predictive factors (e.g., sex and family history of persistent stuttering). In addition, we present new evidence that early delays in basic speech motor processes (especially in boys), poor performance on a nonword repetition test, stuttering severity at the age of 4 to 5 years, and delayed or atypical functioning in central nervous system language processing networks are predictive of persistent stuttering.

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Section: Experimental Level: Neurobiological Clues Into the Processesmentioning

confidence: 99%

What Are Predictors for Persistence in Childhood Stuttering?

et al. 2018

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“…As we have noted (Smith and Weber, 2017), the lack of stuttering/non-stuttering group differences does not necessarily imply that a particular factor is ultimately not significant for recovery versus persistence of stuttering. On this point, in a more recent study, Zengin-Bolatkale et al (2018) reported that higher sympathetic arousal during the stressful picture naming task conducted when the children were in preschool was predictive of later, persistent stuttering.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sympathetic Nervous System Activity in Preschoolers Who Stutter

Walsh

Smith

Christ

et al. 2019

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

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BackgroundIn our Dynamic Pathways, account, we hypothesized that childhood stuttering reflects an impairment in speech sensorimotor control that is conditioned by cognitive, linguistic, and emotional factors. The purpose of this study was to investigate potential differences in levels of sympathetic arousal during performance of speech and non-speech tasks between children who do and do not stutter.MethodsSeventy-two preschool-aged children participated in the study, 47 children who stutter (CWS; 38 boys) and 25 children who do not stutter (CWNS; 18 boys). We recorded skin conductance and blood pulse volume (BPV) signals, indices of sympathetic arousal, during higher/lower load speech tasks (structured sentence production and picture description) and non-speech tasks (jaw wagging and forceful blowing). We included a measure that reflects children’s attitudes about their communication skills and a parent-report assessment of temperament.ResultsWe found no significant differences between preschool CWS and CWNS in phasic skin conductance response amplitude or frequency, BPV, and pulse rate for any of the experimental tasks. However, compared to CWNS, CWS had, on average, significantly higher skin conductance levels (SCL), indexing slowly changing tonic sympathetic activity, across both speech and non-speech experimental conditions. We found distinctive task-related profiles of sympathetic arousal in both groups of preschool children. Most children produced the highest levels of sympathetic arousal in the physically demanding blowing task rather than in speech, as seen in previous studies of adults. We did not find differences in temperament between the two groups of preschool children nor a relationship among behavioral indices of temperament and communication attitude and physiological measures of sympathetic arousal.ConclusionWe did not find that atypically high, speech-related sympathetic arousal is a significant factor in early childhood stuttering. Rather, CWS had higher, on average, task-related tonic SCLs across speech and non-speech tasks. A relationship among behavioral measures of temperament and physiological measures of sympathetic arousal was not confirmed. Key questions for future experiments are how the typical coupling of sympathetic and speech sensorimotor systems develops over childhood and adolescence and whether task related developmental profiles follow a different course in children who continue to stutter.

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“…Psychophysiological research with children who stutter is somewhat limited. However, recently a number of studies have examined CWS's autonomic nervous system response to such speaking conditions as picture naming, picture description, and non-word repetition (Jones et al, 2014 , 2017 ; Zengin-Bolatkale et al, 2015 , 2018 ; Choi et al, 2016 ; Tumanova and Backes, 2019 ; Walsh and Usler, 2019 ; Walsh et al, 2019 ). Results of these studies generally indicate that CWS do not have an elevated level of autonomic arousal during speaking.…”

Section: Electrodermal Activity As a Measure Of Emotional Reactivitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Results of these studies generally indicate that CWS do not have an elevated level of autonomic arousal during speaking. However, between-group differences in arousal, based on age (Zengin-Bolatkale et al, 2015 ) and task complexity (Tumanova and Backes, 2019 ), as well as within-CWS differences, based on stuttering chronicity (Zengin-Bolatkale et al, 2018 ), and speech fluency (Walsh et al, 2019 ) have been observed.…”

Section: Electrodermal Activity As a Measure Of Emotional Reactivitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Emotional Reactivity and Regulation in Preschool-Age Children Who Do and Do Not Stutter: Evidence From Autonomic Nervous System Measures

Tumanova

Wilder

Gregoire

et al. 2020

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

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Purpose: This experimental cross-sectional research study examined the emotional reactivity and emotion regulation in preschool-age children who do (CWS) and do not stutter (CWNS) by assessing their psychophysiological response during rest and while viewing pictures from the International Affective Picture System (Lang et al., 2008).Method: Participants were 18 CWS (16 boys and two girls; mean age 4 years, 5 months) and 18 age- and gender-matched CWNS. Participants' psychophysiological responses were measured during two baselines and two picture viewing conditions. Skin conductance level (SCL) and heart rate were measured to assess emotional reactivity. Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) was measured to assess emotional regulation. Participants' shyness and executive function were assessed via parent report and considered for their effects on participants' psychophysiological responses.Results: First, CWNS and CWS did not differ in their initial baseline SCL, heart rate, or RSA, but all participants had higher SCL and lower RSA in the second baseline, subsequent to the first challenge condition, compared to the first baseline. Second, during the challenge conditions, CWS did not differ from CWNS in their SCL, but showed a significantly higher heart rate than CWNS. Third, CWS exhibited a significantly lower RSA during the challenge conditions compared to CWNS. Lastly, the temperamental quality of shyness was associated with preschool-age children's SCL, such that participants who were rated higher in shyness had a higher SCL during the challenge conditions. Participants' executive function had a marginally significant effect on the RSA, such that the participants who had higher executive function composite scores exhibited lower RSA during the challenge conditions.Conclusions: Our findings suggest that CWS and CWNS did not differ in their emotional reactivity and emotional regulation abilities at rest. During challenge conditions, however, CWS tended to be more emotionally reactive, as indicated by a higher heart rate, and also employed more emotional regulation, indexed by a greater decrease in RSA, compared to CWNS. Preschool-age children's behavior is largely dominated by reactivity, but there is the emergence of regulation, which can help children adjust to various contextual demands. For CWS who are more emotionally reactive, regulatory skills may be particularly critical to their prognosis and treatment.

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Sympathetic arousal as a marker of chronicity in childhood stuttering

Abstract: Findings are taken to suggest that sympathetic activity may be an early marker of heightened risk for chronic stuttering.

Cited by 25 publications

References 78 publications

What Are Predictors for Persistence in Childhood Stuttering?

What Are Predictors for Persistence in Childhood Stuttering?

Sympathetic Nervous System Activity in Preschoolers Who Stutter

Emotional Reactivity and Regulation in Preschool-Age Children Who Do and Do Not Stutter: Evidence From Autonomic Nervous System Measures

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