Atypical Syntactic Processing in Individuals Who Stutter

Cuadrado, Elizabeth; Weber‐Fox, Christine

doi:10.1044/1092-4388(2003/075)

Cited by 43 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…This finding was unexpected given Weber-Fox et al’s [ 18 ] observation that preschool-age CWS exhibited a P600 reduced over the left hemisphere and increased over the right hemisphere relative to fluent peers. A reduced and narrowly distributed P600 was also reported in AWS compared to fluent controls [ 51 ]. Although the language skills of the AWS group were within normal limits, this group performed worse than controls on linguistic assessments.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…ERP studies of adults who stutter (AWS) revealed atypical neural activity during semantic and syntactic processing relative to adults who do not stutter (AWNS), despite their having normal linguistic abilities [ 51 – 53 ]. In a natural speech processing paradigm, Weber-Fox and Hampton [ 53 ] observed semantic (verb expectation) and syntactic (verb agreement) violations in simple sentences respectively elicit typical N400 and P600 effects in AWNS.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Neurodevelopment for syntactic processing distinguishes childhood stuttering recovery versus persistence

Usler

Weber‐Fox

2015

J Neurodevelop Disord

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BackgroundCharacterized by the presence of involuntary speech disfluencies, developmental stuttering is a neurodevelopmental disorder of atypical speech-motor coordination. Although the etiology of stuttering is multifactorial, language development during early childhood may influence both the onset of the disorder and the likelihood of recovery. The purpose of this study was to determine whether differences in neural indices mediating language processing are associated with persistence or recovery in school-age children who stutter.MethodsEvent-related brain potentials (ERPs) were obtained from 31 6–7-year-olds, including nine children who do not stutter (CWNS), 11 children who had recovered from stuttering (CWS-Rec), and 11 children who persisted in stuttering (CWS-Per), matched for age, and all with similar socioeconomic status, nonverbal intelligence, and language ability. We examined ERPs elicited by semantic and syntactic (phrase structure) violations within an auditory narrative consisting of English and Jabberwocky sentences. In Jabberwocky sentences, content words were replaced with pseudowords to limit semantic context. A mixed effects repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) was computed for ERP components with four within-subject factors, including condition, hemisphere, anterior/posterior distribution, and laterality.ResultsDuring the comprehension of English sentences, ERP activity mediating semantic and syntactic (phrase structure) processing did not distinguish CWS-Per, CWS-Rec, and CWNS. Semantic violations elicited a qualitatively similar N400 component across groups. Phrase structure violations within English sentences also elicited a similar P600 component in all groups. However, identical phrase structure violations within Jabberwocky sentences elicited a P600 in CWNS and CWS-Rec, but an N400-like effect in CWS-Per.ConclusionsThe distinguishing neural patterns mediating syntactic, but not semantic, processing provide evidence that specific brain functions for some aspects of language processing may be associated with stuttering persistence. Unlike CWS-Rec and CWNS, the lack of semantic context in Jabberwocky sentences seemed to affect the syntactic processing strategies of CWS-Per, resulting in the elicitation of semantically based N400-like activity during syntactic (phrase structure) violations. This vulnerability suggests neural mechanisms associated with the processing of syntactic structure may be less mature in 6–7-year-old children whose stuttering persisted compared to their fluent or recovered peers.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neurodevelopment for syntactic processing distinguishes childhood stuttering recovery versus persistence

Usler

Weber‐Fox

2015

J Neurodevelop Disord

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“…The former findings were taken to indicate that neural functions related to lexical retrieval may be altered in AWS, while the latter findings were taken to indicate that adulthood stuttering may not stem from phonological processing deficits. This line of work has also been extended to investigate syntactic processing in AWS (e.g., Cuadrado and Weber-Fox, 2003; Weber-Fox and Hampton, 2008). As discussed in Maxfield et al (2012), it remains an open question whether differences observed between AWS and TFA in receptive language processing generalize to language production (although see Pickering and Garrod, 2007, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Real-time processing in picture naming in adults who stutter: ERP evidence

Maxfield

Morris

Frisch

et al. 2015

Clinical Neurophysiology

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Objective The aim was to compare real-time language/cognitive processing in picture naming in adults who stutter (AWS) versus typically-fluent adults (TFA). Methods Participants named pictures preceded by masked prime words. Primes and target picture labels were Identical or mismatched. Priming effects on naming and picture-elicited ERP activity were analyzed. Vocabulary knowledge correlations with these measures were assessed. Results Priming improved naming RTs and accuracy in both groups. RTs were longer for AWS, and correlated positively with receptive vocabulary in TFA. Electrophysiologically, posterior-P1 amplitude negatively correlated with expressive vocabulary in TFA versus receptive vocabulary in AWS. Frontal/temporal-P1 amplitude correlated positively with expressive vocabulary in AWS. Identity priming enhanced frontal/posterior-N2 amplitude in both groups, and attenuated P280 amplitude in AWS. N400 priming was topographically-restricted in AWS. Conclusions Results suggest that conceptual knowledge was perceptually-grounded in expressive vocabulary in TFA versus receptive vocabulary in AWS. Poorer expressive vocabulary in AWS was potentially associated with greater suppression of irrelevant conceptual information. Priming enhanced N2-indexed cognitive control and visual attention in both groups. P280-indexed focal attention attenuated with priming in AWS only. Topographically-restricted N400 priming suggests that lemma/word form connections were weaker in AWS. Significance Real-time language/cognitive processing in picture naming operates differently in AWS.

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“…Weber-Fox and colleagues have reported that AWS exhibit atypical ERP activity during sentence processing (Cuadrado and Weber-Fox, 2003), including atypical N400 activations (Weber-Fox, 2001; Weber-Fox and Hampton, 2008). It is important to acknowledge that activation spreading mechanisms driving N400 priming effects in the picture-word tasks we have adopted may be different from mechanisms that drive N400 effects elicited during sentence processing.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring semantic and phonological picture–word priming in adults who stutter using event-related potentials

Maxfield

Pizon-Moore

Frisch

et al. 2012

Clinical Neurophysiology

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Objective Our aim was to investigate how semantic and phonological information is processed in adults who stutter (AWS) preparing to name pictures, following-up a report that event-related potentials (ERPs) in AWS evidenced atypical semantic picture-word priming (Maxfield et al., 2010). Methods Fourteen AWS and 14 typically-fluent adults (TFA) participated. Pictures, named at a delay, were followed by probe words. Design elements not used in Maxfield et al. (2010) let us evaluate both phonological and semantic picture-word priming. Results TFA evidenced typical priming effects in probe-elicited ERPs. AWS evidenced diminished Semantic priming, and reverse Phonological N400 priming. Conclusions Results point to atypical processing of semantic and phonological information in AWS. Discussion considers whether AWS ERP effects reflect unstable activation of target label semantic and phonological representations, strategic inhibition of target label phonological neighbors, and/or phonological label-probe competition. Significance Results raise questions about how mechanisms that regulate activation spreading operate in AWS.

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Atypical Syntactic Processing in Individuals Who Stutter

Cited by 43 publications

References 45 publications

Neurodevelopment for syntactic processing distinguishes childhood stuttering recovery versus persistence

Neurodevelopment for syntactic processing distinguishes childhood stuttering recovery versus persistence

Real-time processing in picture naming in adults who stutter: ERP evidence

Exploring semantic and phonological picture–word priming in adults who stutter using event-related potentials

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