Bella Obioha
Pronouns: she/her
Research Mentor(s): Emily Garnett
Co-Presenter: Shahab, Ali
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Psychiatry / Medicine
Presentation Date: April 20
Presentation Type: Poster
Session: Session 3 – 1:40pm – 2:30 pm
Room: League Ballroom
Authors: Bella Obioha, Ali Hasan Shahab, Dr. Emily Garnett, PhD, Megan Sheppard, Dr. Shanley Treleaven, PhD, Dr. Soo-Eun Chang, PhD
Presenter: 23
Abstract
Stuttering is a neurodevelopmental speech disorder that affects about 1% of adults, yet treatment for adults who stutter is limited. Using recent advances in the neurobiological understanding of stuttering, our research lab is investigating how non-invasive brain stimulation could improve speech fluency in adults who stutter. High-Definition transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (HD-tDCS) is a form of low electrical current applied to the scalp. Adults who stutter received HD-tDCS for 5 consecutive days while engaging in fluency-inducing speech. Participants are randomized into either the active stimulation group or the sham (placebo) stimulation group. The study is double blind which means that neither the researcher delivering the brain stimulation, nor the participant, knows the group assignment. The participants provide a speech sample before and after the 5 days of stimulation. The speech sample includes reading, conversation, and picture description. Student Research Assistants are then given the video samples of these sessions and use a program called Computerized Language Analysis (CLAN) to transcribe and analyze the results. The program follows a set of rules which dictate how students can transcribe what each subject is saying. Once the transcriptions are completed, speech-language pathologists will add disfluency codes so that we can compare the amount of stuttering before and after HD-tDCS in the two groups. Our hypothesis is that stuttering will decrease more in the active group than the sham group. Data analysis is ongoing at the time of abstract submission; however, we will discuss the results and conclusions, including implications for stuttering treatment.
Biomedical Sciences
