Effect of oral anesthetization on the speech characteristics of persons with and without stuttering

Abstract

Appropriate sensory feedback from the speech structures aects articula- tion and prosody. The study aimed to investigate the eects of oral anes- thetization on the speech characteristics in persons with stuttering (PWS) compared to normals. The participants included 18-30 year old 25 PWS and 25 age and gender matched controls. Their spontaneous speech and reading samples were video recorded prior to and after the administration of oral anesthesia. These samples were analyzed for Stuttering Like Dis uencies (SLDs), Normal Dis uencies (NDs), Articulation Errors (AE) and rate of speech. The SLDs and NDs were signicantly reduced un- der oral anesthesia and AEs were more of distortions and not signicant. The rates were signicantly reduced in both the groups under oral anes- thesia. The reduction in sensory input thus showed an inuence on the speech behaviors and rate of speech signifying the need of appropriate sen- sory feedback from the articulators for uent speech which needs further exploration.