Estimates of functional cerebral hemispheric differences in monolingual and bilingual people who stutter: Visual hemifield paradigm

ABSTRACT

The relationship between stuttering and bilingualism to functional cerebral hemispheric processing was examined using a visual hemifield paradigm. Eighty native German speakers, half of whom were also proficient speakers of English as a second language (L2), were recruited. The participants were organised into four different groups according to speech status and language ability: 20 monolinguals who stutter, 20 bilinguals who stutter, 20 monolinguals who do not stutter, and 20 bilinguals who do not stutter. All participants completed a task involving selective identification of common objects simultaneously presented to both visual fields. Overall, an LVF advantage was observed across all groups with no significant group differences in regard to hemispheric asymmetry. However, both bilingual groups showed faster reaction times and fewer identification errors than the two monolingual groups. A prevailing finding was that bilingualism seems to offset deficits in executive functioning associated with stuttering. Hence, the results lend support to previous findings implicating the benefits of bilingualism.

KEYWORDS:

• Bilingualism
• developmental stuttering
• executive functions
• hemispheric asymmetry
• visual hemifield paradigm

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest.

Notes

¹ Prior to data collection, statistical power was determined to decide on an appropriate sample size. In consultation with a statistician, it was calculated that a minimum sample size of 16 participants per group was required.