P300 Event-Related Potentials in Stutterers and Nonstutterers

Abstract

This study investigated possible differences between adult stutterers and nonstutterers in the P300 event-related potential. Responses to tonal stimuli were recorded from electrodes placed over the left (C3) and right (C4) hemispheres. The two groups exhibited different patterns of interhemispheric activity. Although all 8 participants in the fluent group exhibited P300s that were higher in amplitude over the right hemisphere, 5 of the 8 disfluent participants had higher amplitude activity over the left hemisphere. These results provide evidence that stutterers and nonstutterers may exhibit differences between hemispheres in the processing of some types of nonlinguistic (tonal) stimuli.