Emotional reactivity, regulation and childhood stuttering: a behavioral and electrophysiological study

Abstract

The purpose of this preliminary study was to assess whether behavioral and psychophysiological correlates of emotional reactivity and regulation are associated with developmental stuttering, as well as determine the feasibility of these methods in preschool-age children. Nine preschool-age children who stutter (CWS) and nine preschool-age children who do not stutter (CWNS) listened to brief background conversations conveying happy, neutral, and angry emotions (a resolution conversation followed the angry conversation), then produced narratives based on a text-free storybook. Electroencephalograms (EEG) recorded during listening examined cortical correlates of emotional reactivity and regulation. Speech disfluencies and observed emotion regulation were measured during a narrative immediately after each background conversation. Results indicated that decreased use of regulatory strategies is related to more stuttering in children who stutter. However, no significant differences were found in EEG measurements of emotional reactivity and regulation between CWS and CWNS or between emotion elicitation conditions. Findings were taken to suggest that use of regulatory strategies may relate to the fluency of preschool-age children's speech-language output.

Learning outcomes: The reader will be able to (1) describe emotional reactivity and regulation processes, (2) discuss evidence for or against the relations of emotional reactivity, regulation and stuttering, (3) understand how multiple measures can be used to measure emotional reactivity and regulation.

Figure 1

For CWS (N = 9) and CWNS (N = 9), regulatory strategy frequency per usable seconds is displayed in a boxplot (Tukey, 1977) for the first minute of each narrative based on maximum likelihood estimates (upper panel). Also, for CWS and CWNS, total disfluencies/total words (TD/TW) for the first minute of each narrative, based on maximum likelihood estimates, are displayed the lower panel.

Figure 2

The relation of regulatory strategy frequency per usable seconds with total disfluencies/total words (TD/TW) is plotted for CWS and CWNS.

Figure 3

The relations of stuttering-like disfluencies per total words (SLD/TW) to regulatory strategy frequency per usable seconds (left panel) and to regulatory strategy duration per usable seconds (right panel) are plotted for CWS.

Figure 4

For CWS (N = 9) and CWNS (N = 9) alpha asymmetry scores for happy and angry conditions, referenced to (i.e., subtracted by) asymmetry scores from the neutral condition, for the frontal and parietal regions are displayed in the upper panel of boxplots. Also for both talker groups, alpha asymmetry scores for the neutral condition are displayed in the lower panel of boxplots.

Figure 5

For CWS (N = 9) and CWNS (N = 9), alpha (upper panel) and beta (lower panel) asymmetry scores for angry minus resolution in the frontal and parietal regions are displayed in boxplots.