White matter microstructural differences underlying beta oscillations during speech in adults who stutter

Mollaei, F. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2916-9750, Mersov, A., Woodbury, M., Jobst, C., Cheyne, D. and De Nil, L. (2021) White matter microstructural differences underlying beta oscillations during speech in adults who stutter. Brain and Language, 215. 104921. ISSN 0093-934x doi: 10.1016/j.bandl.2021.104921

Abstract/Summary

The basal ganglia-thalamocortical (BGTC) loop may underlie speech deficits in developmental stuttering. In this study, we investigated the relationship between abnormal cortical neural oscillations and structural integrity alterations in adults who stutter (AWS) using a novel magnetoencephalography (MEG) guided tractography approach. Beta oscillations were analyzed using sensorimotor speech MEG, and white matter pathways were examined using tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) and probabilistic tractography in 11 AWS and 11 fluent speakers. TBSS analysis revealed overlap between cortical regions of increased beta suppression localized to the mouth motor area and a reduced fractional anisotropy (FA) in the AWS group. MEG-guided tractography showed reduced FA within the BGTC loop from left putamen to subject-specific MEG peak. This is the first study to provide evidence that structural abnormalities may be associated with functional deficits in stuttering and reflect a network deficit within the BGTC loop that includes areas of the left ventral premotor cortex and putamen.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/97892
Identification Number/DOI	10.1016/j.bandl.2021.104921
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Life Sciences > School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences > Neuroscience Life Sciences > School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences > Department of Clinical Language Sciences
Publisher	Elsevier
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