Alpha Hemispheric Asymmetry and Stuttering

Abstract

The alpha hemispheric asymmetries of normal-speaking males, normal-speaking females and male stutterers were examined with electroencephalographic (EEG) techniques during exposure to connected speech and connected nonlinguistic stimuli. The subject selection was controlled for familial right handedness. The stutterers showed significantly less alpha in their right hemispheres for both verbal and nonverbal tasks. The findings are discussed in terms of possible variables affecting hemispheric processing in normal males, females, and stutterers. The hypothesis that stuttering may be a linguistic segmentation dysfunction is presented.