Abstract #1691

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

Xu Chen^1,2, Barbara Lewis³, Amy Hansen³, Lisa Freebairn³, Jean Tkach^1,2

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.