The Role of Basal Ganglia in Stuttering:An EGG study

Developmental stuttering is a speech fluency disorder that has been attributed as movement disorder and no unique factor has been known. In recent years, neurological factors and neuro-motor theory have attracted more agreement. In this time, developmental stuttering has been considered as a neuro-motor disorder result from abnormal motor control and propose its cause as basal ganglia involvement that involve all of speech production systems, specially larynx and vocal fold mechanism. The aim of present study was investigation of the cause of developmental stuttering using investigation of vocal fold movements as fine and sequence movements. Methods & materials : Present study performed on two groups- 16 stutterers and 16 health normal- that there is no significant difference between them in terms of age, sex, education and laterality. showed there isn’t significant difference between both groups on contact quotient (CQ) (p=0.461). Interestingly, there was significant difference on perturbation contact quotient between both groups (p=0.043). With all of investigations on relationship between stuttering and basal ganglia involvement and with consideration regulation vibratory disorder in vocal fold of subjects with stuttering and that regulation of movement is one of the most function of basal ganglia, therefore, we can claim that there is relationship between stuttering and basal ganglia