Prevalence of and Risk Factors for Self-Reported Voice Problems in Tibetan Monks.

BACKGROUND: It is observed that Tibetan monks pray for a long duration with inappropriate pitch and loudness. Hence, they may be prone to developing voice problems (VPs). However, the monks are not stressed and do not miss praying in the monastery (which is quite different from many other professional voice users in Western countries). Moreover, no studies have investigated the nature of VPs among Tibetan monks. Such a study may provide insight into the prevalence of and risk factors for VPs and may help enhance our knowledge of the VPs in Tibetan monks. STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey. METHOD: A self-reporting questionnaire was distributed among 300 Tibetan monks residing in Namdroling Nyingmapa Monastery, Karnataka, India, from February 2023 to June 2023. RESULTS: 39% of Tibetan monks experienced VPs in their careers; hoarseness, momentary voice loss/sudden voice changes, and dryness were the most frequently reported symptoms. Monks reporting the presence of VPs also exhibited significantly higher frequencies of different phonotraumatic behaviors like speaking with a loud voice, constantly altering the voice, frequent throat clearing, speaking/chanting during throat infections, or VPs than those who did not report VPs. The results of bivariate regression analysis identified factors such as more than 8hours of prayer duration per day, praying in the presence of musical instruments, not sipping water in between prayers, less than three liters of water intake, and the presence of acid reflux and dry throat, as significant risk factors responsible for VPs in Tibetan monks. CONCLUSIONS: Current results suggest that monks are at a high risk of developing VPs, and several factors (vocational, environmental, lifestyle, and health-related) contribute to the development of VPs. Further, VPs in monks also affect them in terms of missing prayers, interacting less with family/friends, and avoiding social gatherings. Overall, there is a great need to educate the monks about vocal health and preventing VPs.

Expectations from stuttering therapy: Qualitative content analysis of client's perspective in Kannada-speaking adults who stutter.

PURPOSE: The current study was carried out to explore clients' expectations from stuttering therapy using the qualitative content method in the Indian context. METHOD: Twenty-one Kannada-speaking adults who stutter between the age range of 18-33 years participated in the study. The procedure involved three phases, including the formulation of semi-structured interview questions, data collection and analysis. Inductive content analysis was used to determine the categories and sub-categories arising from the participants verbatim. The frequency count of emerging sub-categories was completed, and the data was interpreted. RESULTS: The overall analysis of the data obtained from 21 participants generated three categories under the theme of expectations from speech therapy. The categories generated included beliefs and understanding of stuttering, stuttering and related behaviours, and goals and outcome of therapy. CONCLUSION: Selecting personalised goals and techniques during therapy is necessary to improve client satisfaction. This study helps clinicians to understand the anticipatory beliefs of Kannada-speaking adults who stutter and educate them about achievable and realistic goals, leading to shared decision-making to ensure better quality of life and satisfaction in everyday speaking situations.

Molecular Evaluation of Joubert Syndrome and Hearing Impairment in a Patient with Ataxic Cerebral Palsy.

Joubert syndrome (JBTS) is a rare autosomal recessive or X-linked congenital brain malformation with strong genetic heterogeneity. Other neurological features of JBTS include hypotonia, ataxia, developmental delay, and cognitive impairment. Hearing loss with JBTS has been reported in the literature. We present the case of a 3.5-year-old boy born to a healthy consanguineous South Indian couple who was presented with ataxic cerebral palsy (CP) and hearing impairment; medical reports confirmed typical brain malformations of JBTS. Hearing impairment was screened by audiological assessment, which confirmed the presence of severe-profound hearing loss with outer hair cell dysfunction. Whole-exome sequencing (WES) was performed to know the molecular aspects of the condition and to detect any novel mutations. The homozygous mutation AHI1 c.2023G > A associated with JBTS type 3 and GJB2 c.71G > A mutation associated with hearing impairment were identified. Sanger sequencing was performed to validate the result and it identified heterozygous AHI1 c.2023G > A and GJB2 c.71G > A in the patient's parents. This study confirms the diagnosis of JBTS by WES helps identify the genetic causes of hereditary disorders that accelerate genetic evaluation and counseling for at-risk families.

PMM2 -CDG T237M Mutation in a Patient with Cerebral Palsy-Like Phenotypes Reported from South India.

Congenital disorder of glycosylation (CDG) is an autosomal recessively inherited disorder. Hypotonia, stroke-like episodes, and peripheral neuropathy are also associated with the condition that typically develops during infancy. The patient, a 12-year-old girl born to healthy consanguineous parents, was diagnosed with cerebral palsy as a child. The affected patient has hypotonia, inadequate speech, strabismus, and developmental delay with mild mental retardation, which are key symptoms of CDG. Whole-exome sequencing (WES) identified the known missense pathogenic variant PMM2 c.710 C > T, p.T237M in the patient coding for the phosphomannomutase 2 (PMM2) confirming molecular testing of CDG. The patient's parents carried heterozygous PMM2 c.710 C > T variants. This study highlights the importance of WES in patients with a developmental disability or other neurological conditions, which is also useful in screening risk factors in couples with infertility or miscarriage issues.

Analysis of SLC26A4 Gene in Individuals with Non Syndromic Hearing Impairment in Relation with GJB2 Associated Mutations.

Background: Hearing Loss (HL) is the most common sensory disorder. HL commonly ranges from mild to severe. Persons with HL face difficulty in hearing conversations or sounds through one ear or both ears, which impacts one's ability to interact with others. Hence it is a communicable disorder that makes people socially isolated, lonely, and frustrated. HL in children severely affects language development. The people who are referred to as 'Deaf' with very little or no hearing capabilities, are considered as having profound hearing loss. More than 124 genes are causative for Non-Syndromic HL (NSHL) with varying inheritance, among which the SLC26A4 mutations are the second commonest cause of hereditary HL across the globe. Methods: Samples from 70 NSHL patients were analyzed through Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) and generated five pathogenic variants [N246fs (rs918684449), K564fs (rs746427774), F122fs, V239D (rs111033256), T721M (rs121908363)] each with frequency of 1.42%. Three missense variants [S399P (rs747431002), L597S (rs55638457), and G6V (rs111033423)] were reported under the "uncertain" category. All the collected samples were further genotyped to look for the possibility of having GJB2 and HL-associated mutations. Results: Out of five SLC26A4 pathogenic mutations N246fs (rs918684449) and K564fs (rs746427774) were observed in samples which were positive for GJB2-HL associated candidate mutations [W24X (rs104894396), Q124X (rs397516874) and W77X (rs80338944)]. Similarly, pathogenic variants F122fs, V239D (rs111033256) and T721M (rs121908363) were observed in patient samples which were negative for GJB2-HL associated mutations. Conclusion: Our data will expand the list of variants underlying NSHL and encourage further genotype SLC26A4 gene concerning the south Indian population with a large sample size.

Carnatic Classical Singers' Interest and Knowledge Levels of Vocal Function and Dysfunction: A Cross-sectional Survey.

OBJECTIVE: The present study aimed to determine the interest and knowledge levels of Indian Carnatic classical singers concerning the vocal function and dysfunction. STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey. METHODS: Self-reporting vocal awareness questionnaire for singers comprising 61 items under nine sections developed by Braum-Janzen and Zeine was adopted and validated to the Carnatic music context. The data was gathered using the snowball sampling method. Each participant spent 10-15 minutes to fill the questionnaire. The 100 participants were divided into two groups based on years of individual singing experience, group 1: Singers with less than 10 years, group 2: Singers with greater than 10 years of individual singing experience. RESULTS: Few singers reported a thorough understanding in all areas except anatomy and physiology of voice production. As indicated by most of the singers, they were very much interested in expanding their knowledge in (1) the anatomy and physiology of the voice, (2) the role of the speech-language pathologist (SLP) and the voice, (3) the care of the voice, (4) optimal use of the speaking voice, and (5) functional vocal disorders. Further, in both the groups, there was a high number of incorrect and don't know responses. Differences in knowledge levels and interest levels between the two groups were non-significant in all areas (P > 0.05). CONCLUSION: Overall, the high number of incorrect and don't know responses suggest that many Carnatic singers do not have even basic knowledge of vocal function and dysfunction, and could benefit from education in these areas. Hence, SLPs need to develop education programs for Carnatic singers towards vocal function and dysfunction so that the development of voice problems in Carnatic singers can be prevented.

Immediate Effects of Straw Phonation in Water Exercises on Parameters of Vocal Loading in Carnatic Classical Singers.

OBJECTIVE: The present study aimed to investigate the effect of vocal loading and the immediate effects of straw phonation in water exercises on parameters of vocal loading in Carnatic classical singers. STUDY DESIGN: A within-subject pretest-posttest design. METHODS: Twelve healthy Carnatic classical singers participated in the vocal loading experiment for 2 days, referred to as no-treatment and treatment conditions. The vocal loading task consisted of 1 hour of continuous singing in the presence of background noise. For the treatment condition, the participants followed a 10-minute straw phonation in water exercises before the vocal loading task. Acoustic, electroglottographic, and self-rated perceptual voice measures were recorded before and after the vocal loading task on both days. RESULTS: Pretest and posttest comparison of various outcome measures during no-treatment day suggested a significant increase in shimmer percent, decrease in maximum phonation duration of vowel /a/, and increase in perceived phonatory effort, perceived vocal effort, and Evaluation of Ability to Sing Easily scores. Pretest and posttest comparisons during treatment day showed a significant increase in Mean F0, Highest F0, and Lowest F0, perceived phonatory effort, and perceived vocal effort scores. However, changes in Mean F0, Highest F0, and Lowest F0 measures were small in the posttest condition compared to pretest. CONCLUSION: The present results suggest that vocal loading did induce changes in Carnatic classical singers' voices. However, there is no substantial evidence that straw phonation is effective in reducing the vocal loading in Carnatic classical singers. Further studies are required to corroborate the current findings.

Linguistic factors and stuttering in Nepali speaking adults who stutter.

This study aimed to determine the effect of phonological and morphological factors on the dysfluencies of Nepali-speaking adults who stutter. Eighteen Nepali-speaking adult speakers with mild to very severe developmental stuttering were recruited. The spontaneous speech sample was audio-video recorded and transcribed through orthographic transcription. A total of 350 syllables were analysed to calculate stuttering frequency. Phoneme position, phoneme category, and word length were considered as the phonological factors and word-class as morphological factors. The percentage of stuttering for each of these variables was computed. The study's outcome displayed a significant effect of phoneme position and word length but no effect of phoneme category. Significantly greater stuttering was noticed in the word-initial position and longer words compared to word-medial and shorter words, respectively. In morphological factors, content words and content-function words had a greater stuttering rate than function words. This study showed a significant effect of phoneme position, word length, and grammatical class on the frequency of dysfluency in Nepali-speaking adults who stutter but no effect of phoneme category. The phonetic complexity of these variables may lead to an increase in motor planning demand resulting in more stuttering.

Comparison of Habitual and High Pitch Phonation in Teachers With and Without Vocal Fatigue.

OBJECTIVES: The main aim of this study was to investigate whether or not high pitch phonation can be used for assessing the vocal loading model. For this purpose, habitual and high pitch phonations were compared between teachers with and without vocal fatigue. METHODS: Sixty teachers (30 teachers with vocal fatigue and 30 teachers without vocal fatigue) participated in the present study. From both the groups of teachers, habitual and high pitch phonations were recorded. Fundamental frequency measures (mean, minimum, and maximum fundamental frequency), percent Jitter (Jitt), relative average perturbation (RAP), pitch perturbation quotient (PPQ), smoothened pitch perturbation quotient (SPPQ), noise-to-harmonic ratio (NHR), cepstral peak prominence (CPP), and smoothened cepstral peak prominence (CPPS) measurements were extracted from the recorded samples. The different acoustic measurements were compared across the two phonations and two groups of teachers. RESULTS: Significant decrease in mean, minimum, and maximum fundamental frequency values were found in high pitch phonation in teachers with vocal fatigue when compared with teachers without vocal fatigue. However, there was no significant difference between the two groups of participants for any of the acoustic measurements during the habitual phonation. CONCLUSION: Current results highlight that high pitch phonation may serve as a better sensitive sample than habitual phonation as an indicator to assess vocal fatigue in teachers. Hence, further studies need to be done with different professional voice users to early identify those individuals who are susceptible to develop voice problems.

Communication attitude of Kannada-speaking adults who do and do not stutter.

The Communication Attitude Test for Adults who stutter (BigCAT) is an established measure of cognitive traits in adults who stutter (AWS). The primary purpose of the present study was to adapt and validate the BigCAT to the Kannada language. The secondary purpose was to compare AWS' and adults who do not stutter (AWNS) BigCAT-K scores and compare AWS' score in sub-populations in terms of severity and age. The study included a purposive sample of 100 AWS and 317 AWNS. There was high test-retest reliability and solid construct validity, as made evident by the results of the discriminant analysis and cross-validation. Further, as in other investigations with the BigCAT (Vanryckeghem & Brutten, 2019), this self-report test revealed a statistically significant group mean difference between AWS and AWNS, suggesting the presence of a negative attitude towards communication in Kannada-speaking AWS. Further, individuals with severe stuttering had a significantly higher level of speech-associated negative attitude compared to those with mild stuttering. Age does not seem to influence the AWS' speech-associated belief system. Both of these findings augment the existing scant literature on exploring the association between stuttering severity and age on the cognitive dimension of stuttering. The outcomes establish the BigCAT-K as an effective tool in the assessment and subsequent management of stuttering.

Prevalence of Voice Problems, Self-Reported Vocal Symptoms and Associated Risk Factors in Call Center Operators (CCOs): A Systematic Review.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to systematically review the available literature on the prevalence, self-reported voice symptoms, and associated risk factors for the development of voice problems in call center operators (CCO). STUDY DESIGN: a systematic review METHODS: An electronic search from five databases based on the guidance of preferred reporting of items for systematic reviews and meta-analysis (PRISMA) yielded 15 articles that reported the different aspects of voice problems in CCOs. The methodological quality of the studies was analyzed using the National Institute of Health (NIH) questionnaire. RESULTS: The career prevalence of voice problems in CCOs varied from 33% to 68%, whereas point prevalence was at 27%. Hoarse/rough voice was the most prominent symptom reported by most of the studies. Vocal fatigue, effortful voice, and breaks/cracks in voice were the other reported vocal symptoms. Long working hours, short breaks between calls, noisy working environment, dry work environment, work stress, stressful calls, limited breaks, prolonged use of voice, insufficient vocal rest, throat clearing, and more caffeinated beverage intake were different risk factors having significant association with telemarketers reporting vocal symptoms. CONCLUSION: The present study results suggest that CCOs are at higher risk of developing voice problems. Further, the different vocal symptoms reported by CCOs are suggestive of vocal fatigue. In addition, multiple risk factors may be associated with the development of voice problems. However, the available literature is limited, and further studies with a larger sample size are required to corroborate the current findings.

The Speech Situation Checklist-Emotional Reaction: Normative and comparative study of Kannada-speaking children who do and do not stutter.

Purpose: Existing data stemming from investigations with the Speech Situation Checklist (SSC) have shown this standardised test to be a valid and reliable tool for assessing speech-related anxiety in children who stutter (CWS). The main purpose of this study was to compare Speech Situation Checklist-Emotional Reaction (SSC-ER) scores for Kannada-speaking children who do not stutter (CWNS) and CWS. In addition, the Speech Situation Checklist-Emotional Reaction in Kannada (SSC-ER-K) scores among different stuttering severity and age groups were compared in CWS.Method: The English version of the SSC-ER was forward-translated into Kannada and back-translated by the first author. SSC-ER-K was administered on 100 CWS and 275 CWNS aged between 7 and 14 years who were native speakers of the Kannada language. The severity of stuttering was estimated using the Stuttering Severity Instrument-fourth edition (SSI-4).Result: The results revealed that the SSC-ER-K scores of CWS were significantly higher in comparison with CWNS. CWS with moderate and severe degrees of stuttering had significantly higher scores when compared to those with a mild degree of stuttering. Furthermore, the older CWS (11-14 years) had significantly higher scores compared to the younger CWS (7-10 years). In addition, the SSC-ER-K appears to be a reliable self-report test. The above findings suggest the presence of significantly increased speech-related anxiety in CWS. Also, as age and severity of stuttering increased so did the level of their speech-related anxiety.Conclusion: The SSC-ER-K is a useful tool in the assessment of negative emotional reaction to specific speech situations in Kannada CWS and can assist speech-language pathologists in addressing speech-situation specific anxiety during treatment.

A systematic review on the role of language-related factors in the manifestation of stuttering in bilinguals.

PURPOSE: Bilingual(s) who stutter (BWS) provide an opportunity to explore the link between stuttering and language. Unlike in monolinguals, stuttering in bilinguals could be influenced by both speaker-related language (e.gs. dominance & proficiency) and linguistic typology-related factors (e.g., structure of languages). However, the available literature is largely inconclusive on these factors. In this context, we systematically reviewed the literature to compile evidence on the influence of such factors on BWS. METHOD: We followed the conventional systematic review process that included five databases. Further, the quality of the included articles was assessed using Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) for quality rating. RESULT: Thirteen articles passed the selection criteria. Review of these articles revealed that language proficiency and dominance are the important factors that affect stuttering frequency in BWS. Though the linguistic typology is portrayed as a factor on the differential manifestation of dysfluencies in both languages of the BWS, the literature does not provide substantiating data for this. Further, the lack of uniformity in assessing and reporting language dominance and proficiency are the major drawbacks in the existing literature on stuttering in BWS. CONCLUSION: This review identifies proficiency and dominance as the major factors that influence the stuttering frequency in BWS. Currently, the evidence for the influence of typological differences between languages of the BWS on stuttering largely remains whimsical. Future research shall employ the recommended tasks and metrics while assessing the dysfluencies in BWS so that findings across centres become comparable, which in turn, could yield valid inferences.

Cross-Cultural Adaptation and Validation of the Evaluation of the Ability to Sing Easily (EASE) for Kannada-Speaking Carnatic Classical Singers.

OBJECTIVE: The present study aimed to cross-culturally adapt and validate the Evaluation of the Ability to Sing Easily (EASE) into Kannada for the benefit of Carnatic classical singers. METHODS: Following a standard translation procedure, the original English version was translated to develop a prefinal EASE-K version. This was further field-tested on 12 Carnatic singers to obtain the final EASE-K version. Upon validating the same on 104 Carnatic singers, intercorrelation between EASE-K subscales- Vocal Fatigue (VF) and Pathologic Risk Indicators (PRI) were assessed using the Spearman correlation coefficient. The internal consistency of the subscales was obtained based on the Cronbach's alpha coefficient. Nonparametric tests were carried out to study the effect of age and gender on EASE-K subscales. Further, the raw scores of the English version were compared to the EASE-K. RESULTS: Spearman correlation coefficient indicated a statistically significant positive correlation (P < .01) between the two subscales (r = .745). Each scale showed good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha was .84). Test-retest reliability carried on 12 singers indicated an excellent reliability for the subscales. Nonparametric tests indicated no significant effect of age and gender on the subscales of EASE-K (P > .05). Comparison across the original and EASE-K revealed significant differences for both VF (P = .02) and PRI (P = .00) subscales. CONCLUSIONS: Current findings indicate that EASE-K is a reliable and valid tool that can be used to document the subtle changes in voice in healthy Carnatic classical singers. Further, the current tool can be used to study the effect of vocal loading across different singing styles.

Communication Attitude of Kannada-Speaking School-Age Children Who Do and Do Not Stutter.

BACKGROUND: A large body of evidence suggests that the Communication Attitude Test (CAT) is a reliable and valid tool for assessing the speech-associated attitude of school-age children who stutter (CWS). OBJECTIVE: The purpose of the present study was to adapt and validate the CAT for the Kannada-speaking school-age CWS. METHODS: The original version of the CAT was forward- and back-translated by the first author. The Communication Attitude Test Kannada (CAT-K) was then administered to 293 children who do not stutter (CWNS) and 100 CWS. All children were native speakers of the Kannada language and were between the ages of 7 and 14 years. The Stuttering Severity Instrument-fourth edition (SSI-4) was used to estimate the severity of stuttering. RESULTS: The data revealed that, in comparison to CWNS, the CWS' mean CAT-K score was significantly higher, and a significant effect of stuttering severity and age on mean attitude scores was observed. In addition, results showed that the CAT-K is a reliable and valid test. CONCLUSION: The findings suggest the presence of a negative attitude in Kannada-speaking CWS and that the CAT-K is a useful tool in the assessment of Kannada school-age CWS. Given the need for speech-language pathologists to address a speech-associated negative attitude in CWS, incorporating the CAT-K as part of the diagnostic assessment of stuttering is valuable.

Predictive factors for persistence and recovery of stuttering in children: A systematic review.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to systematically review the available literature on various factors that can predict the persistence and recovery of stuttering in children. METHOD: An electronic search yielded a total of 35 studies, which considered 44 variables that can be potential factors for predicting persistence and recovery. RESULT: Among 44 factors studied, only four factors- phonological abilities, articulatory rate, change in the pattern of disfluencies, and trend in stuttering severity over one-year post-onset were identified to be replicated predictors of recovery of the stuttering. Several factors, such as differences in the second formant transition between fluent and disfluent speech, articulatory rate measured in phones/sec, etc., were observed to predict the future course of stuttering. However, these factors lack replicated evidence as predictors. CONCLUSION: There is clear support only for limited factors as reliable predictors. Also, it is observed to be too early to conclude on several replicated factors due to differences in the age group of participants, participant sample size, and the differences in tools used in research that lead to mixed findings as a predictive factor. Hence there is a need for systematic and replicated testing of the factors identified before initiating their use for clinical purposes.

Nonword repetition and identification skills in Kannada speaking school-aged children who do and do not stutter.

PURPOSE: The present study employed nonword repetition and nonword identification tasks to explore the phonological working memory (PWM) abilities and its interaction with speech motor control in school-aged children who do and do not stutter. METHOD: Participants were 17 children who stutter (CWS) (Age range = 7-12) and 17 age and gender-matched children who do not stutter (CWNS). For the nonword repetition task, the participants repeated sets of 2-, 3-, and 4-syllable nonwords (n = 12 per set). The participants silently identified a target nonword from a subsequent set of three nonwords (n = 12 per 2-, 3- and 4-syllable length) for the nonword identification task. The performance of CWS on the nonword repetition task was compared with the CWNS for the mean number of accurate repetitions, number of trials taken, number of accurate repetitions on initial trial, and number of fluent repetitions across the three-syllable conditions for the tasks. For the nonword identification task, the number of nonwords identified accurately by the two groups were subjected to analysis. RESULTS: CWS were significantly less accurate on the initial production of nonwords and required significantly more number of attempts to repeat the nonword accurately. Further for the nonword identification task, CWS were significantly less accurate than CWNS in correctly identifying the target nonword. CONCLUSIONS: The present findings suggest that, in addition to limitations in PWM capacity, an unstable speech motor control system in CWS may lead to dysfluent speech.

Prevalence of and Risk Factors for Self-Reported Voice Problems Among Carnatic Singers.

BACKGROUND: Unlike Western opera singing, Carnatic singing requires powerful low pitched, loud voice. Singing in the right Shruti or pitch and appropriate breathing is given the main emphasis in this style of music. The present study was conducted to explore the prevalence of and possible risk factors for the self-reported voice problem (VP) in Carnatic singers. METHOD: This cross-sectional survey was conducted by distributing the self-reporting questionnaires to 190 Carnatic singers in and around the Mysuru and Bengaluru districts of Karnataka state, India, from December 2016 to April 2017. RESULTS: The Carnatic singers were found to have high career (35%) and point (23%) prevalence rates of VP. Clenching of teeth, frequent cold, difficulty in hearing, stress related to the profession, and regular intake of medications for different health-related problems were some of the risk factors found to have a significant association with high prevalence of self-reported VPs. Around 22% of the Carnatic singers missed at least 2-5 singing performances due to VP during their career. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, the results of this study reveal a high prevalence rate of self-reported VP in Carnatic singers, and they also suggest that the VPs are associated with different risk factors like any other form of singers. Further studies are needed to understand the effect of VP and to prevent it in this group of professional voice users.

Stuttering frequency and severity in Kannada-English balanced bilingual adults.

There is limited research concerning the nature of stuttering in balanced bilinguals. Hence, the aim of this study was to compare aspects of stuttering between two languages in balanced bilinguals who stutter (BWS). Eighteen adult Kannada-English BWS participated in the study, with Kannada as the first language (L1) and English as the second language (L2). As indicated by online language proficiency test results, all the participants were highly proficient balanced bilinguals. Audio-video recordings were done in both the languages across three tasks (reading, spontaneous speech, and telephonic conversation) and two situations (within the clinic and beyond clinic). They were analyzed for percentage of syllables stuttered (%SS) and perceptual severity rating scores (SEV). Results suggest significantly higher %SS in English compared to Kannada for both spontaneous speech (SS) and telephonic conversation (TC) tasks. SEV scores indicated significantly higher scores for English compared to Kannada for TC task. A significant positive correlation was also found across the %SS-SEV pair. Results highlight variability in the nature of stuttering in balanced BWS. Apart from the other factors, differences in the linguistic structure may be one of the reasons for differences in stuttering.

Detection of Gap and Modulations: Auditory Temporal Resolution Deficits in Adults Who Stutter.

BACKGROUND: Recent models of speech production suggest a link between speech production and perception. Persons with stuttering are known to have deficits in sensorimotor timing and exhibit auditory processing problems. Most of the earlier studies have focused on assessing temporal ordering in adults who stutter (AWS), but limited attempts have been made to document temporal resolution abilities in AWS. METHODS: A group of 16 AWS and 16 age- and gender-matched adults who do not stutter (AWNS) were recruited for the study. Temporal resolution abilities were assessed using the Gap Detection Test and temporal modulation transfer function (TMTF). RESULTS: The results revealed significant differences in TMTF between AWS and AWNS, but no differences were found in the gap detection thresholds. CONCLUSIONS: Results suggest that the sensory representations of the temporal modulations are compromised in AWS, which may contribute to the programming of rhythmic movements during speech planning.