Auditory processing deficits have been hypothesized to play a role in the disorder of stuttering (Bloodstien, 1995). The current study focused on non-linguistic auditory processing without verbal responses to rule out effects of language processing differences and articulatory planning for speaking. A pure-tone, oddball paradigm was utilized to compare behavioral responses of accuracy and reaction time, and event-related potentials elicited by brief standard and target tones. Results revealed that, as a group, AWS tended to perform less accurately and were slower to respond to target stimuli. However, inspection of individual data indicated that most AWS performed well within the range of the NFS, and only 3/11 AWS were clearly outside the range. No overall group differences were found for early perceptual processes (N100 and P200), however, the AWS with small amplitude N100 responses were those who performed less accurately and those with reduced P200 amplitudes performed more slowly. Thus, a small subset AWS demonstrated early perceptual processes indicative of reduced cortical representation of auditory input that may have resulted in reduced behavioral performance. P300 mean amplitude, which tended to be reduced overall for the AWS compared to the NFS, did not correlate with behavior for the AWS. However, P300 mean amplitude was significantly correlated with accuracy for the NFS indicating that stronger working memory updating processes enhanced performance for NFS. Taken together, these findings emphasize the importance of examining individual differences among AWS and point to the possibility of non-linguistic auditory processing deficits in only a subset of AWS.

Purpose Previous findings from event-related brain potentials (ERPs) indicate that adults who stutter (AWS) exhibit processing differences for visually presented linguistic information. This study explores how neural activations for AWS may differ for a linguistic task that does not require preparation for overt articulation and/or engage the articulatory loop for silent speech. Method Syntactic and semantic processing constraints were examined in AWS and adults who are normally fluent (AWNF) by assessing their behavioral performance and ERPs in a natural speech listening task. Results AWS performed similarly to AWNF in identifying verb-agreement violations and semantic anomalies, but ERPs elicited by syntactic and semantic constraints indicated atypical neural functions for AWS. ERPs of the AWNF displayed an expected N400 for reduced semantic expectations and a typical P600 for verb-agreement violations. In contrast, both N400s and P600s for the semantic and verb-agreement conditions were observed in the ERPs of the AWS. Conclusions The findings suggest that AWS may engage semantic-syntactic mechanisms more generally for semantic and syntactic processing. These findings converge with earlier studies using visual stimuli to indicate that, while linguistic abilities are normal in AWS, underlying brain activity mediating some aspects of language processing may function differently.

Objectives Our objective was to determine if feline-specific music played in a veterinary clinical setting would promote lower cat stress scores (CSSs), lower mean handling scale scores (HSs) and reduced neutrophil:lymphocyte ratios (NLRs) in cats during physical examinations. Methods Cats were exposed to one of three auditory stimuli tests – silence, classical music and cat-specific music – during three physical examinations 2 weeks apart. CSSs were recorded at pre- and post-auditory tests and during the examination period. The HSs were recorded at the physical examination period. The physiological stress was assessed via NLRs. Results The pre-auditory test showed no difference in CSS between cats listening to silence, classical music and cat music. CSSs for post-auditory tests and examination periods were not significantly different between silence and classical music; however, CSSs were significantly decreased in cats listening to cat music vs silence and in cats listening to cat music vs classical music. HSs were not different in cats listening to silence vs classical music, but were significantly lower in cats listening to cat music vs silence and classical music. No difference was found in NLRs among all three auditory stimuli tests. Conclusions and relevance Listening to cat-specific music prior to, and during, physical examination was associated with lower CSSs and lower HSs in cats, but had no effect on the physiological stress responses measured by NLRs. We conclude that cat-specific music may benefit cats by decreasing the stress levels and increasing the quality of care in veterinary clinical settings.