ArticleFrontiers in human neuroscience2019
Sympathetic Nervous System Activity in Preschoolers Who Stutter.
Article in Frontiers in human neuroscience, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Hand Preference in Stuttering: Meta-Analyses.Neuropsychology review · 2024Pooled it
- Physiological Correlates of Fluent and Stuttered Speech Production in Preschool Children Who Stutter.Journal of speech, language, and hearing research : JSLHR · 2019Trial
- Autonomic Arousal During Speech Production and Sensorimotor Adaptation.Journal of speech, language, and hearing research : JSLHR · 2026Article
- Cortical emotional reactivity, caregiver-reported emotional control, and stuttering frequency in young children.Journal of fluency disorders · 2025Article
- The Significance of a Higher Prevalence of ADHD and ADHD Symptoms in Children Who Stutter.Journal of speech, language, and hearing research : JSLHR · 2025Article
- Caregiver Predictions of Their 3- to 6-Year-Old Child Who Stutters' Communication Attitude.Journal of speech, language, and hearing research : JSLHR · 2024Article
- Exploring the Relationship Between Resilience and the Adverse Impact of Stuttering in Children.Journal of speech, language, and hearing research : JSLHR · 2023Article
- Psychophysiological Arousal in Young Children Who Stutter: An Interpretable AI Approach.Proceedings of the ACM on interactive, mobile, wearable and ubiquitous technologies · 2022Article
- Emotional Regulation and Its Influence on the Experience of Stuttering Across the Life Span.Journal of speech, language, and hearing research : JSLHR · 2022Article
- Sex Differences in Functional Connectivity Between Resting State Brain Networks in Autism Spectrum Disorder.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2022Article
- Developmental Factors That Predict Head Movement During Resting-State Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging in 3-7-Year-Old Stuttering and Non-stuttering Children.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2021Article
- Emotional Reactivity and Regulation in Preschool-Age Children Who Do and Do Not Stutter: Evidence From Autonomic Nervous System Measures.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2020Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundIn our Dynamic Pathways, account, we hypothesized that childhood stuttering reflects an impairment in speech sensorimotor control that is conditioned by cognitive, linguistic, and emotional factors. The purpose of this study was to investigate potential differences in levels of sympathetic arousal during performance of speech and non-speech tasks between children who do and do not stutter.
methodsSeventy-two preschool-aged children participated in the study, 47 children who stutter (CWS; 38 boys) and 25 children who do not stutter (CWNS; 18 boys). We recorded skin conductance and blood pulse volume (BPV) signals, indices of sympathetic arousal, during higher/lower load speech tasks (structured sentence production and picture description) and non-speech tasks (jaw wagging and forceful blowing). We included a measure that reflects children's attitudes about their communication skills and a parent-report assessment of temperament.
resultsWe found no significant differences between preschool CWS and CWNS in phasic skin conductance response amplitude or frequency, BPV, and pulse rate for any of the experimental tasks. However, compared to CWNS, CWS had, on average, significantly higher skin conductance levels (SCL), indexing slowly changing tonic sympathetic activity, across both speech and non-speech experimental conditions. We found distinctive task-related profiles of sympathetic arousal in both groups of preschool children. Most children produced the highest levels of sympathetic arousal in the physically demanding blowing task rather than in speech, as seen in previous studies of adults. We did not find differences in temperament between the two groups of preschool children nor a relationship among behavioral indices of temperament and communication attitude and physiological measures of sympathetic arousal.
conclusionWe did not find that atypically high, speech-related sympathetic arousal is a significant factor in early childhood stuttering. Rather, CWS had higher, on average, task-related tonic SCLs across speech and non-speech tasks. A relationship among behavioral measures of temperament and physiological measures of sympathetic arousal was not confirmed. Key questions for future experiments are how the typical coupling of sympathetic and speech sensorimotor systems develops over childhood and adolescence and whether task related developmental profiles follow a different course in children who continue to stutter.
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