Speaking to a metronome reduces kinematic variability in typical speakers and people who stutter.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Several studies indicate that people who stutter show greater variability in speech movements than people who do not stutter, even when the speech produced is perceptibly fluent. Speaking to the beat of a metronome reliably increases fluency in people who stutter, regardless of the severity of stuttering.

Objectives

Here, we aimed to test whether metronome-timed speech reduces articulatory variability.

Method

We analysed vocal tract MRI data from 24 people who stutter and 16 controls. Participants repeated sentences with and without a metronome. Midsagittal images of the vocal tract from lips to larynx were reconstructed at 33.3 frames per second. Any utterances containing dysfluencies or non-speech movements (e.g. swallowing) were excluded. For each partic

SUBMITTER: Wiltshire CEE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11482672 | biostudies-literature | 2024

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature