Elevated iron concentration in putamen and cortical speech motor network in developmental stuttering.

ABSTRACT: Theoretical accounts of developmental stuttering implicate dysfunctional cortico-striatal-thalamo-cortical motor loops through the putamen. However, the analysis of conventional MRI brain scans in individuals who stutter has failed to yield strong support for this theory in terms of reliable differences in the structure or function of the basal ganglia. Here, we performed quantitative mapping of brain tissue, which can be used to measure iron content alongside markers sensitive to myelin and thereby offers particular sensitivity to the measurement of iron-rich structures such as the basal ganglia. Analysis of these quantitative maps in 41 men and women who stutter and 32 individuals who are typically fluent revealed significant group differences in maps of R2*, indicative of higher iron co

SUBMITTER: Cler GJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8634076 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature