Cortical emotional reactivity, caregiver-reported emotional control, and stuttering frequency in young children

The present study aimed to determine whether cortical associates of emotional reactivity and caregiver-reported emotional control skills are associated with stuttered speech in young children who do (CWS) and do not stutter (CWNS).

Twenty young CWS and 24 young CWNS passively viewed neutral and affective pictures while their event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded. Children's speech fluency was assessed during a free-play conversational speech sample before the ERP task. Participants' caregivers completed the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF).

For CWS and CWNS, greater cortical reactivity to unpleasant pictures was associated with higher stuttering frequency. Parents of CWS rated their children poorer on the Emotional Control dimension of the BRIEF than parents of CWNS. However, the between-group difference on Emotional Control was no longer significant when group differences in expressive language scores were taken into account. Within-group analyses revealed that poorer Emotional Control scores were associated with higher stuttering frequency for CWS. Lastly, for CWS, poorer Emotional Control scores on BRIEF were associated with greater cortical reactivity to unpleasant pictures.

Overall, findings replicate those of previous studies that reported a significant association between stuttering and emotion-related behavioral and physiological measures. Further, this study extends past work and provides the first evidence that cortical measures of emotional reactivity are associated with stuttering frequency. Potential mechanisms that may explain the nature of the association between emotional processes and stuttering frequency are discussed but must await further study to be elucidated.