STUTTERING: CEREBRAL DOMINANCE AND THE DICHOTIC WORD TEST

Abstract

A considerable amount of research suggests that stuttering is a consequence of genetically determined malfunctioning of the auditory feedback control of speech. The anatomical details of this proposed lesion are not known, and the possibility that it might be a simple lack of cerebral dominance for speech comprehension was investigated in 60 stutterers by using the dichotic word test. This test is believed to reflect the degree of dominance for speech comprehension by presenting speech binaurally in a situation of perceptual rivalry. While a significantly large minority of the stutterers (20%) showed evidence of reversed dominance, the performance of the group generally did not support the theory of simple lack of cerebral dominance in stutterers.