Neural mechanisms driving speech and language recovery following childhood stroke: a scoping review.

Purpose: This scoping review aimed to inform future research priorities by collating evidence on neural correlates of speech and language recovery following childhood stroke.

Methods: Neuroimaging, motor speech, or language outcomes following childhood stroke (28 days to 18 years age) in the subacute to chronic community stages (care occurring after acute medical management, including inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation, and community-based programs) were identified and extracted from Medline, Embase, PsycInfo, and Clinical databases.

Results: Of the 3990 studies screened, 11 met the inclusion criteria.

Motor Evoked Potential Amplitude in Motor Behavior-based Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Studies: A Systematic Review.

Motor evoked potential amplitude (MEP) is frequently measured in transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) studies that target the primary motor cortex (M1), and a subset of these studies involve motor behavior. This systematic review explored the role of MEP as an indicator of neural change in M1-targeted tDCS studies involving motor behavior (i.e.

Integrating Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation into an Existing Inpatient Physiotherapy Program to Enhance Motor Learning in an Adolescent with Traumatic Brain Injury: A Case Report.

Purpose: Describe how transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) was incorporated into an inpatient physiotherapy program for an adolescent with severe traumatic brain injury (TBI), detail the motor learning focus of the physiotherapy sessions, and summarize gross motor progress.

Method: This case report describes an adolescent who received 20 minutes of anodal tDCS immediately prior to 16 physiotherapy sessions over four weeks. Potential side effects were tracked pre/post tDCS.

Gross motor change after inpatient rehabilitation for children with acquired brain injury: A 10-year retrospective review.

Aim: To estimate gross motor change in inpatient school-aged children with subacute acquired brain injury (ABI), identify factors associated with gross motor change, and describe inpatient physiotherapy focus.

Method: This retrospective chart review involved inpatient children (5-18 years) with subacute ABI who had either two Gross Motor Function Measure (GMFM-88) assessments or one GMFM-88 with another pre/post gross motor outcome measure. Outcome change scores and Goal Attainment Scaling (GAS) T scores were calculated.

Pediatric Responses to Fundamental and Formant Frequency Altered Auditory Feedback: A Scoping Review.

Purpose: The ability to hear ourselves speak has been shown to play an important role in the development and maintenance of fluent and coherent speech. Despite this, little is known about the developing speech motor control system throughout childhood, in particular if and how vocal and articulatory control may differ throughout development. A scoping review was undertaken to identify and describe the full range of studies investigating responses to frequency altered auditory feedback in pediatric populations and their contributions to our understanding of the development of auditory feedback control and sensorimotor learning in childhood and adolescence.

The effect of transcranial direct current stimulation on cognitive performance in youth with persistent cognitive symptoms following concussion: a controlled pilot study.

Objective: Explore the feasibility, tolerability, and early efficacy of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) as a therapeutic intervention for youth with cognitive persistent post-concussion symptoms (PPCS).

Hypothesis: tDCS improves performance on a dual task working memory (WM) paradigm in youth with cognitive PPCS.

Participants: Twelve youth experiencing cognitive PPCS.

Parent Interventions Improve Behavior After Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

Objective: To examine child behavior change scores from randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of parent interventions for pediatric traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Methods: MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, and CINAHL were searched to identify studies that examined parent interventions for pediatric TBI. Inclusion criteria included (i) a parent intervention for children with TBI; (ii) an RCT study design; (iii) statistical data for child behavior outcome(s); and (iv) studies that were published in English.

Decreased automaticity contributes to dual task decrements in older compared to younger adults.

Purpose: To contrast older and younger adults' prefrontal cortex (PFC) neural activity (through changes in oxygenated hemoglobin) during single and dual tasks, and to compare decrements in task performance.

Methods: Changes in oxygenated hemoglobin of dorsolateral PFC were monitored using functional near-infrared spectroscopy during single tasks of spelling backwards (cognitive task) and 30 m preferred paced walk; and a dual task combining both. Gait velocity was measured by a pressure sensitive mat.

Effects of Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury on Verbal IQ: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Objectives: To examine the effects of pediatric traumatic brain injury (TBI) on verbal IQ by severity and over time.

Methods: A systematic review and subsequent meta-analysis of verbal IQ by TBI severity were conducted using a random effects model. Subgroup analysis included two epochs of time (e.

Response patterns to vowel formant perturbations in children.

Auditory feedback is an important component of speech motor control, but its precise role in developing speech is less understood. The role of auditory feedback in development was probed by perturbing the speech of children 4-9 years old. The vowel sound /ɛ/ was shifted to /æ/ in real time and presented to participants as their own auditory feedback.

Language performance within three months of early childhood traumatic brain injury.

Purpose: To examine language outcomes in the short-term stage (i.e., within three months) of early childhood traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Pediatric concussion working memory outcomes: a scoping review.

Characterize the working memory (WM) profile of children and youth who have experienced concussion by systematically synthesizing existing literature on the neuropsychological outcomes of these injuries. Implemented a peer-reviewed search strategy combining key concepts of concussion/mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), WM, and pediatrics across MedLine, Embase, PsycINFO, and CINAHL. Included studies written in English with extractable results on a WM outcome measure in individuals aged 21 and under who experienced concussion.

Sports Related Concussion Impacts Speech Rate and Muscle Physiology.

Objective: Establish objective and subjective speech rate and muscle function differences between athletes with and without sports related concussion (SRC) histories and provide potential motor speech evaluation in SRC.

Methods: Over 1,110 speech samples were obtained from 30, 19-22 year-old athletes who had sustained an SRC within the past 2 years and 30 pair-wise matched control athletes with no history of SRC. Speech rate was measured via average time per syllable, average unvoiced time per syllable, and expert perceptual judgment.

Paradoxical facilitation alongside interhemispheric inhibition.

Neurophysiological experiments using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) have sought to probe the function of the motor division of the corpus callosum. Primary motor cortex sends projections via the corpus callosum with a net inhibitory influence on the homologous region of the opposite hemisphere. Interhemispheric inhibition (IHI) experiments probe this inhibitory pathway.

Speech planning and execution in children who stutter: Preliminary findings from a fNIRS investigation.

Few studies have investigated the neural mechanisms underlying speech production in children who stutter (CWS), despite the critical importance of understanding these mechanisms closer to the time of stuttering onset. The relative contributions of speech planning and execution in CWS therefore are also unknown. Using functional near-infrared spectroscopy, the current study investigated neural mechanisms of planning and execution in a small sample of 9-12 year-old CWS and controls (N = 12) by implementing two tasks that manipulated speech planning and execution loads.

Behavioral and neural correlates of speech motor sequence learning in stuttering and neurotypical speakers: an fMRI investigation.

Stuttering is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impaired production of coordinated articulatory movements needed for fluent speech. It is currently unknown whether these abnormal production characteristics reflect disruptions to brain mechanisms underlying the acquisition and/or execution of speech motor sequences. To dissociate learning and control processes, we used a motor sequence learning paradigm to examine the behavioral and neural correlates of learning to produce novel phoneme sequences in adults who stutter (AWS) and neurotypical controls.

Human larynx motor cortices coordinate respiration for vocal-motor control.

Vocal flexibility is a hallmark of the human species, most particularly the capacity to speak and sing. This ability is supported in part by the evolution of a direct neural pathway linking the motor cortex to the brainstem nucleus that controls the larynx the primary sound source for communication. Early brain imaging studies demonstrated that larynx motor cortex at the dorsal end of the orofacial division of motor cortex (dLMC) integrated laryngeal and respiratory control, thereby coordinating two major muscular systems that are necessary for vocalization.

Brain and Language Associations in Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Scoping Review.

Examining brain and behaviour associations for language in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may bring us closer to identifying neural profiles that are unique to a subgroup of individuals with ASD identified as language impaired (e.g. ASD LI+).

Swallowing, Oral Motor, Motor Speech, and Language Impairments Following Acute Pediatric Ischemic Stroke.

Background And Purpose: Following adult stroke, dysphagia, dysarthria, and aphasia are common sequelae. Little is known about these impairments in pediatric stroke. We assessed frequencies, co-occurrence and associations of dysphagia, oral motor, motor speech, language impairment, and caregiver burden in pediatric stroke.

The Effect of Childhood Traumatic Brain Injury on Verbal Fluency Performance: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Verbal fluency is a neuropsychological measure commonly used to examine cognitive-linguistic performance as reported in pediatric TBI literature. We synthesized the scholarly literature of verbal fluency performance in pediatric TBI and estimated the effects of TBI according to: (i) type of verbal fluency task (phonemic or semantic), (ii) severity of TBI, and (iii) time post-injury. Meta-analysis revealed that childhood TBI negatively impacted phonemic fluency and semantic fluency and that effect sizes were larger for children with more severe TBI.

Changes in Oxyhemoglobin Concentration in the Prefrontal Cortex during Cognitive-Motor Dual Tasks in People with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.

Cognitive and motor impairment are well documented in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients, but their relationship has not been studied. This study evaluated and compared cognitive and motor performance during dual tasks and related dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (PFC) changes in oxygenated hemoglobin (ΔOHb), a proxy measure of neural activity, in patients with COPD and age-matched healthy individuals. Participants performed three single tasks: (1) backwards spelling cognitive task; (2) 30 m preferred paced walk; (3) 30 m fast walk, and two dual tasks: (4) preferred paced walk + backwards spelling; (5) fast paced walk + backwards spelling.

Whistling shares a common tongue with speech: bioacoustics from real-time MRI of the human vocal tract.

Most human communication is carried by modulations of the voice. However, a wide range of cultures has developed alternative forms of communication that make use of a whistled sound source. For example, whistling is used as a highly salient signal for capturing attention, and can have iconic cultural meanings such as the catcall, enact a formal code as in boatswain's calls or stand as a proxy for speech in whistled languages.

A fNIRS Investigation of Speech Planning and Execution in Adults Who Stutter.

Our study aimed to determine the neural correlates of speech planning and execution in adults who stutter (AWS). Fifteen AWS and 15 controls (CON) completed two tasks that either manipulated speech planning or execution processing loads. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) was used to measure changes in blood flow concentrations during each task, thus providing an indirect measure of neural activity.

Accessory to dissipate heat from transcranial magnetic stimulation coils.

Background: Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) produces magnetic pulses by passing a strong electrical current through coils of wire. Repeated stimulation accumulates heat, which places practical constraints on experimental design. New method: We designed a condensation-free pre-chilled heat sink to extend the operational duration of transcranial magnetic stimulation coils.