Visual working memory in people with stuttering: ERP study

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event Visual working memory in people with stuttering: ERP study Maria Pyasik1*, Stanislav Kozlovskiy1, Alexander Vartanov1 and Janna Glozman1 1 Lomonosov Moscow State University, Psychology, Russia Recent studies show, that working memory functioning is impaired in people with stuttering (Bajaj, 2007; Kaganovich et al. 2010). However, there is still no certain neurophysiological explanation of this fact. Participants in the study were 10 people with stuttering and 10 people without any speech impairments (8 men and 2 women in each subject group, mean age - 25,3±4,8 years old). We performed computer neuropsychological testing of visual working memory capacity. Subjects’ goal was to remember three simultaneously presented for 1000 ms visual stimuli and then find them in the same sequence among 16-20 similar stimuli after a 1200 ms delay. The test consisted of two series, which differed in stimuli type - complex geometric figures and words; the stimuli were based on A.R. Luria’s neuropsychological assessment materials. During the computer test event-related potentials were registered for the stimuli presentation. We compared the percentage of correct answers in the test between subject groups; event-related potentials were averaged for each part of the test and also compared between subject groups (the significance of the differences in ERP amplitudes was evaluated with Student’s t-test). According to the results of the test, visual working memory capacity in stuttering is significantly lower in comparison to the control subjects for memorizing complex geometric figures, while memorizing words did not reveal any significant differences. ERP amplitudes differ significantly between subject groups on the 400-600 ms interval post-stimulus for the ‘geometric figures’ part of the test; for the second part of the test there were no significant differences in ERP amplitudes. Furthermore, the coordinates of electrical activity dipole sources for 400-600 ms interval were calculated with BrainLoc 6.0 program (dipole coefficient > 0.95). For both parts of the test and both subject groups activation of orbitofrontal cortex and occipital lobe was revealed. However, the activation of orbitofrontal cortex in control subjects was stronger during more difficult part of the test than during the easier one, whereas in stuttering this activation was weaker (smaller amount of dipoles were revealed) regardless of the task difficulty. It can be speculated, that the resources of the central executive of working memory are limited in stuttering, which does not affect the performance in simple tasks but causes trouble during the difficult ones. Acknowledgements This study was supported by Russian Humanitarian Science Foundation (RHSF) project # 13-06-00570. Keywords: visual working memory, Stuttering, orbitofrontal cortex, Event-related potentials, source localization Conference: ACNS-2013 Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Society Conference, Clayton, Melbourne, Australia, 28 Nov - 1 Dec, 2013. Presentation Type: Oral Topic: Memory Citation: Pyasik M, Kozlovskiy S, Vartanov A and Glozman J (2013). Visual working memory in people with stuttering: ERP study. Conference Abstract: ACNS-2013 Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Society Conference. doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2013.212.00174 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 15 Oct 2013; Published Online: 25 Nov 2013. * Correspondence: Ms. Maria Pyasik, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Psychology, Moscow, Russia, maria.pyasik@unito.it Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Maria Pyasik Stanislav Kozlovskiy Alexander Vartanov Janna Glozman Google Maria Pyasik Stanislav Kozlovskiy Alexander Vartanov Janna Glozman Google Scholar Maria Pyasik Stanislav Kozlovskiy Alexander Vartanov Janna Glozman PubMed Maria Pyasik Stanislav Kozlovskiy Alexander Vartanov Janna Glozman Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.