Xu Chen1,2, Barbara Lewis3, Amy Hansen3, Lisa Freebairn3, Jean Tkach1,2
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.