NEW research study (2024, August): "Characteristics of Attentional Focus of Movement among Adults who Stutter"

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Summary:

NEW research study (2024, August): "Characteristics of Attentional Focus of Movement among Adults who Stutter"

Abstract:

Certain conditions are known to eliminate stuttering immediately. These conditions are referred to as fluency-inducing conditions, and they infer abnormalities of attentional characteristics among people who stutter. The aims of this study were to elucidate how the motor performance of stutterers is influenced by attentional foci: external focus of attention and internal focus of attention. A typing task involving sequential key pressing was conducted under the external focus and internal focus conditions among 13 adults who stutter and 12 matched control adults who do not stutter. Typing accuracy and typing speed were analyzed. The results revealed that the typing speed was significantly lower under the internal focus condition than the external focus condition in both groups, indicating that internal focus reduces the efficiency of finger movement compared to external focus. Moreover, for adults who stutter, typing accuracy also decreased significantly under the internal focus condition. It is speculated that adults who stutter are more vulnerable to disruptions in motor control under internal focus conditions than adults who do not stutter. The clinical implications of these findings are discussed. Keywords: stuttering, focus of attention, finger movement, motor performance.

The cause of stuttering is not known. Certain conditions are known to eliminate stuttering immediately. Examples of these conditions, known as fluency-inducing conditions, include speaking with someone else, following the rhythm of a metronome, speaking under delayed auditory feedback. The most common explanation for this effect is "distraction.” Because stuttering is partly an anticipatory struggle behavior, a distraction from one’s stuttering reduces fear or anxiety and, thus, may prevent stuttering. Additionally, these conditions reduce stuttering by changing the allocation of attention in people who stutter. The constrained action hypothesis explains the different effects of these attentional focus types on motor control: Internal focus induces more conscious control of movement, disrupting the process of automatic control. Perhaps stutterers pay too much attention to their articulatory movements (IF condition) and become fluent by altering their attention to their environment.

Conclusions:

To the best of the researcher’s knowledge, this is the first study to clarify the effect of attentional foci on movement control among people who stutter. According to the results, people who stutter exhibited significantly slower and more inaccurate movement of fingers under the IF condition compared to people who do not stutter. Since the present results are of clinical relevance, future research on speech motor control among people who stutter is promising.