Harrewijn A, Schel M A, Boelens H, Nater C M, Haggard P, Crone E A
Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, the Netherlands; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University, the Netherlands.
Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, the Netherlands; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University, the Netherlands.
Neuropsychologia. 2017 Feb;96:213-221. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2017.01.022. Epub 2017 Jan 21.
Previous studies have indicated that children who stutter show not only speech-related problems, but also wider difficulties in self-control. In this study we test the novel hypothesis that children who stutter may experience difficulties with inhibitory control over voluntary actions. We used functional MRI to compare brain activity between children who stutter and children who do not stutter in a task that captures key cognitive aspects of voluntary action control. Participants performed a rolling marble task, in which they were instructed to press a key to stop a rolling marble from crashing on some of the trials (instructed action condition). They were also asked to choose voluntarily whether to execute or inhibit this prepotent response in other trials (volition condition). Children who stutter reported less motor and cognitive impulsivity and had shorter stop-signal reaction times when controlled for IQ, consistent with greater inhibition, compared to children who do not stutter. At the neural level, children who stutter showed decreased activation in the rostral cingulate zone during voluntary action selection compared to children who do not stutter. This effect was more pronounced for children who were rated as showing more stuttered syllables in the stutter screening, and was furthermore correlated with stop-signal reaction times and impulsivity ratings. These findings suggest that stuttering in childhood could reflect wider difficulties in self-control, also in the non-verbal domain. Understanding these neural mechanisms could potentially lead to more focused treatments of stuttering.
先前的研究表明，口吃儿童不仅存在与言语相关的问题，而且在自我控制方面也有更广泛的困难。在本研究中，我们检验了一个新的假设，即口吃儿童在对自主行动的抑制控制方面可能存在困难。我们使用功能磁共振成像来比较口吃儿童和非口吃儿童在一项捕捉自主行动控制关键认知方面的任务中的大脑活动。参与者执行了一个滚动弹珠任务，在某些试验中，他们被指示按下一个键来阻止滚动的弹珠碰撞（指示行动条件）。在其他试验中，他们还被要求自愿选择是执行还是抑制这种优势反应（意志条件）。与非口吃儿童相比，口吃儿童在控制智商后，表现出较少的运动和认知冲动性，并且停止信号反应时间更短，这与更强的抑制能力一致。在神经层面，与非口吃儿童相比，口吃儿童在自主行动选择过程中，其喙部扣带区的激活减少。这种效应在口吃筛查中被评为口吃音节更多的儿童中更为明显，并且还与停止信号反应时间和冲动性评分相关。这些发现表明，儿童口吃可能反映了在自我控制方面更广泛的困难，在非言语领域也是如此。了解这些神经机制可能会为口吃带来更有针对性的治疗方法。
