Feedback delivered over auditory and vibratory afferent pathways has different effects on the fluency of people who stutter (PWS). These features were exploited to investigate the neural structures involved in stuttering. The speech signal vibrated locations on the body (vibrotactile feedback, VTF). Eleven PWS read passages under VTF and control (no-VTF) conditions. All combinations of vibration amplitude, synchronous or delayed VTF and vibrator position (hand, sternum or forehead) were presented. Control conditions were performed at the beginning, middle and end of test sessions. Stuttering rate, but not speaking rate, differed between the control and VTF conditions. Notably, speaking rate did not change between when VTF was delayed versus when it was synchronous in contrast with what happens with auditory feedback. This showed that cerebellar mechanisms, which are affected when auditory feedback is delayed, were not implicated in the fluency-enhancing effects of VTF, suggesting that there is a second fluency-enhancing mechanism.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.