Estimates of functional cerebral hemispheric differences in monolingual and bilingual people who stutter: Dual-task paradigm

ABSTRACT

The inter-relationship of stuttering and bilingualism to functional cerebral hemispheric processing was examined on a dual-task paradigm. Eighty native German (L1) speakers, half of whom were sequential bilinguals (L2 = English), were recruited. The participants (mean age = 38.9 years) were organised into four different groups according to speech status and language ability: 20 bilinguals who stutter (BWS), 20 monolinguals who stutter (MWS), 20 bilinguals who do not stutter (BWNS), and 20 monolinguals who do not stutter (MWNS). All participants completed a dual-task paradigm involving simultaneous speaking and finger tapping. No performance differences between BWS and BWNS were found. In contrast, MWS showed greater dual-task interference compared to BWS and MWNS, as well as greater right- than left-hand disruption. A prevailing finding was that bilingualism seems to offset deficits in executive functioning associated with stuttering. Cognitive reserve may have been reflected in the present study, resulting in a bilingual advantage.

KEYWORDS:

• Bilingualism
• developmental stuttering
• dual-task paradigm
• executive functions
• cognitive reserve

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.