Stuttering Children Have Less Grey Matter

Children who stutter have less grey matter in the area of brain that stimulates speech, a latest research by University of Alberta states.

Researcher Deryk Beal of Institute for Stuttering Treatment and Research, Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine at the U of A,  scanned brains of 28 children, aged between five and 12. These children were divided into two groups. Group one involved children diagnosed with stuttering while the second group served as a control group.

According to the study results, development of the brain area that collects information- the inferior frontal gyrus area in the brain was abnormal among the children who stutter. Poor development of the brain region impedes language processing.

"You can never be quite sure whether the differences in brain structure or function you're looking at were the result of a lifetime of coping with a speech disorder or whether those brain differences were there from the beginning," explained Beal, a speech-language pathologist, in a press release.

"If you think about the characteristics of stuttering-repetitions of the first sounds or syllables in a word, prolongation of sounds in a word-it's easy to hypothesize that it's a speech-motor-control problem," explained Beal. "The type of stuttering treatment we deliver at ISTAR is delivered with this limitation of the speech system in mind, and we have good success in stuttering treatment."

Beal further said that the previous studies done to understand brain differences in stuttering in children used MRI scans. But, the problem with the method was that the scans were taken years after the onset of stuttering, typically between the ages of two and five years.

The study results are helpful in understanding the influence of stuttering on grey matter in children. "The more we know about motor learning in these kids, the more we can adjust our treatment-deliver it in a shorter period of time, deliver it more effectively."

The study was published in the journal 'Cortex.'