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Abstract #1691

Functional MRI Reveals the Critical Role of Brocas Area in Speech Sound Disorders

Xu Chen1,2, Barbara Lewis3, Amy Hansen3, Lisa Freebairn3, Jean Tkach1,2

1Radiology, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA; 2Case Center For Imaging Research, CWRU, Cleveland, OH, USA; 3Communication Sciences, CWRU, Cleveland, OH, USA


Speech sound disorders (SSD) are the largest group of communication disorders observed in children requiring special education. However, the neurological origin of SSD has not been researched extensively. To investigate the neural substrate of SSD, we conducted an functional MRI study using the HUSH (Hemodynamics Unrelated to Sounds from Hardware) technique on 6 participants with SSD history in comparison to 9 age-matched controls during an overt non-word repetition task. Preliminary results demonstrate significant under- activation in Brocas area an area known to be crucial for speech production for the patient group, suggesting the critical role Brocas area plays in SSD.