Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, Vanderbilt University, 1215 21st Avenue South, Medical Center East, Room 8310, Nashville, TN 37232, USA.
Traumatic Stress Research Consortium, Kinsey Institute, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA; Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
J Commun Disord. 2023 Mar-Apr;102:106304. doi: 10.1016/j.jcomdis.2023.106304. Epub 2023 Feb 2.
The present study investigated potential differences in respiratory sinus arrhythmia between preschool-age children with persisting stuttering, children who recovered from stuttering, and children who do not stutter.
Participants were 10 children with persisting stuttering (persisting group), 20 children who recovered from stuttering (recovered group), and 36 children who do not stutter (non-stuttering group). Participants viewed a neutral video clip to establish a pre-arousal baseline and then viewed two emotionally-arousing video clips (positive and negative, counterbalanced). Age-appropriate speaking tasks followed each of the video clips (post-baseline, post-positive, and post-negative). Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), an index of parasympathetic nervous system activity, was measured during the video clips and subsequent speaking tasks.
First, the persisting group, recovered group, and non-stuttering group did not significantly differ in baseline RSA. Second, during the emotionally-arousing video clips, there was a significant group x condition interaction, with the recovered group exhibiting significantly lower RSA in the positive than negative condition, and the non-stuttering group exhibiting significantly higher RSA in the positive than negative condition. Third, in the narrative tasks, there was a significant group x condition interaction, with a greater difference in RSA between the post-baseline speaking task and the post-positive and post-negative speaking tasks for the persisting compared to the non-stuttering group. Lastly, a follow-up analysis indicated that the recovered and nonstuttering groups, compared to the persisting group, exhibited significantly greater RSA during the baseline (neutral) condition compared to the post-neutral narrative task.
Findings provide a physiological perspective of emotion within children who stutter and persist and children who stutter and recover. Future investigations with larger sample sizes and diverse methodologies are necessary to provide novel insights on the specific emotion-related processes that are potentially involved with persistence of stuttering in young children.
本研究旨在调查学龄前持续口吃、口吃恢复期和不口吃儿童之间的呼吸窦性心律失常是否存在差异。
参与者包括 10 名持续口吃儿童(持续组)、20 名口吃恢复期儿童(恢复期组)和 36 名不口吃儿童(非口吃组)。参与者观看中性视频片段以建立基线预兴奋期,然后观看两个情绪唤起的视频片段(正性和负性,平衡)。每个视频片段之后都有适合年龄的口语任务(基线后、正性后和负性后)。呼吸窦性心律失常(RSA),一种副交感神经系统活动的指标,在视频片段和随后的口语任务期间进行测量。
首先,持续组、恢复期组和非口吃组在基线 RSA 上没有显著差异。其次,在情绪唤起的视频片段中,存在组 x 条件的显著交互作用,恢复期组在正性条件下的 RSA 显著低于负性条件,而非口吃组在正性条件下的 RSA 显著高于负性条件。第三,在叙事任务中,存在组 x 条件的显著交互作用,与非口吃组相比,持续组在基线后说话任务与正性和负性后说话任务之间的 RSA 差异更大。最后,一项后续分析表明,与持续组相比,恢复期和非口吃组在基线(中性)条件下的 RSA 明显高于中性后叙事任务。
这些发现为口吃持续和恢复的儿童以及口吃和不口吃的儿童提供了情绪的生理视角。未来需要进行更大规模的样本和多样化的方法研究,以提供有关与幼儿口吃持续相关的特定情绪相关过程的新见解。