Reduced perfusion in Broca's area in developmental stuttering

TY - JOUR

T1 - Reduced perfusion in Broca's area in developmental stuttering

AU - Desai, Jay

AU - Huo, Yuankai

AU - Wang, Zhishun

AU - Bansal, Ravi

AU - Williams, Steven C R

AU - Lythgoe, David

AU - Zelaya, Fernando O.

AU - Peterson, Bradley S.

N1 - © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PY - 2016/12/30

Y1 - 2016/12/30

N2 - Objective: To study resting cerebral blood flow in children and adults with developmental stuttering. Methods: We acquired pulsed arterial spin labeling magnetic resonance imaging data in 26 participants with stuttering and 36 healthy, fluent controls. While covarying for age, sex, and IQ, we compared perfusion values voxel-wise across diagnostic groups and assessed correlations of perfusion with stuttering severity within the stuttering group and with measures of motor speed in both groups. Results: We detected lower regional Cerebral Blood Flow (rCBF) at rest in the stuttering group compared with healthy controls in Broca's area bilaterally and the superior frontal gyrus. rCBF values in Broca's area bilaterally correlated inversely with the severity of stuttering and extended posteriorly into other portions of the language loop. We also found increased rCBF in cerebellar nuclei and parietal cortex in the stuttering group compared with healthy controls. Findings were unchanged in child-only analyses and when excluding participants with comorbid illnesses or those taking medication. Conclusions: rCBF is reduced in Broca's region in persons who stutter. More severe stuttering is associated with even greater reductions in rCBF to Broca's region, additive to the underlying putative trait reduction in rCBF relative to control values. Moreover, a greater abnormality in rCBF in the posterior language loop is associated with more severe symptoms, suggesting that a common pathophysiology throughout the language loop likely contributes to stuttering severity.

AB - Objective: To study resting cerebral blood flow in children and adults with developmental stuttering. Methods: We acquired pulsed arterial spin labeling magnetic resonance imaging data in 26 participants with stuttering and 36 healthy, fluent controls. While covarying for age, sex, and IQ, we compared perfusion values voxel-wise across diagnostic groups and assessed correlations of perfusion with stuttering severity within the stuttering group and with measures of motor speed in both groups. Results: We detected lower regional Cerebral Blood Flow (rCBF) at rest in the stuttering group compared with healthy controls in Broca's area bilaterally and the superior frontal gyrus. rCBF values in Broca's area bilaterally correlated inversely with the severity of stuttering and extended posteriorly into other portions of the language loop. We also found increased rCBF in cerebellar nuclei and parietal cortex in the stuttering group compared with healthy controls. Findings were unchanged in child-only analyses and when excluding participants with comorbid illnesses or those taking medication. Conclusions: rCBF is reduced in Broca's region in persons who stutter. More severe stuttering is associated with even greater reductions in rCBF to Broca's region, additive to the underlying putative trait reduction in rCBF relative to control values. Moreover, a greater abnormality in rCBF in the posterior language loop is associated with more severe symptoms, suggesting that a common pathophysiology throughout the language loop likely contributes to stuttering severity.

KW - Broca

KW - Developmental stuttering

KW - Perfusion

KW - Pulsed arterial spin labeling

KW - Stuttering

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85007545084&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1002/hbm.23487

DO - 10.1002/hbm.23487

M3 - Article

C2 - 28035724

SN - 1065-9471

JO - Human Brain Mapping

JF - Human Brain Mapping

ER -