Childhood stuttering and structural brain morphology

Project summary

Stuttering is a neurodevelopmental speech production disorder that originates in early childhood with typical age of symptom onset between 2 to 5 years. Most affected children recover within 2-3 years after onset. So far, the pathophysiology of developmental stuttering and its possible neuro-anatomical origins are still unclear.
There is need for more pediatric neuroimaging studies investigating the associations between stuttering in early childhood and brain development. Therefore, we aim to validate and extend the findings of prior research in the association of stuttering and structural brain morphometry so that these findings are contributed toward understanding the brain morphometry of stuttering.

This is the first neuroimaging study investigating childhood stuttering in a large birth cohort, which is well suited to study neurodevelopmental disorders. This provides an unique opportunity to explore brain development in a large group of young children at an age close to the onset of stuttering