Diffusion imaging of cerebral white matter in persons who stutter: evidence for network-level anomalies.

ABSTRACT: Deficits in brain white matter have been a main focus of recent neuroimaging studies on stuttering. However, no prior study has examined brain connectivity on the global level of the cerebral cortex in persons who stutter (PWS). In the current study, we analyzed the results from probabilistic tractography between regions comprising the cortical speech network. An anatomical parcellation scheme was used to define 28 speech production-related ROIs in each hemisphere. We used network-based statistic (NBS) and graph theory to analyze the connectivity patterns obtained from tractography. At the network-level, the probabilistic corticocortical connectivity from the PWS group were significantly weaker than that from persons with fluent speech (PFS). NBS analysis revealed significant components in

SUBMITTER: Cai S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3920071 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature