Beyond production: Brain responses during speech perception in adults who stutter

AbstractDevelopmental stuttering is a speech disorder that disrupts the ability to produce speech fluently. While stuttering is typically diagnosed based on one's behavior during speech production, some models suggest that it involves more central representations of language, and thus may affect language perception as well. Here we tested the hypothesis that developmental stuttering implicates neural systems involved in language perception, in a task that manipulates comprehensibility without an overt speech production component. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to measure blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) signals in adults who do and do not stutter, while they were engaged in an incidental speech perception task. We found that speech perception evokes stronger activation in adults who stutter (AWS) compared to controls, specifically in the right inferior frontal gyrus (RIFG) and in left Heschl's gyrus (LHG). Significant differences were additionally found in the lateralization of response in the inferior frontal cortex: AWS showed bilateral inferior frontal activity, while controls showed a left lateralized pattern of activation. These findings suggest that developmental stuttering is associated with an imbalanced neural network for speech processing, which is not limited to speech production, but also affects cortical responses during speech perception

OA Dhollander 2021 Fixel based Analysis of Diffusion MRI

Diffusion MRI has provided the neuroimaging community with a powerful tool to acquire in-vivo data sensitive to microstructural features of white matter, up to 3 orders of magnitude smaller than typical voxel sizes. The key to extracting such valuable information lies in complex modelling techniques, which form the link between the rich diffusion MRI data and various metrics related to the microstructural organization. Over time, increasingly advanced techniques have been developed, up to the point where some diffusion MRI models can now provide access to properties specific to individual fibre populations in each voxel in the presence of multiple “crossing” fibre pathways. While highly valuable, such fibre-specific information poses unique challenges for typical image processing pipelines and statistical analysis. In this work, we review the “Fixel-Based Analysis” (FBA) framework, which implements bespoke solutions to this end. It has recently seen a stark increase in adoption for studies of both typical (healthy) populations as well as a wide range of clinical populations. We describe the main concepts related to Fixel-Based Analyses, as well as the methods and specific steps involved in a state-of-the-art FBA pipeline, with a focus on providing researchers with practical advice on how to interpret results. We also include an overview of the scope of all current FBA studies, categorized across a broad range of neuro-scientific domains, listing key design choices and summarizing their main results and conclusions. Finally, we critically discuss several aspects and challenges involved with the FBA framework, and outline some directions and future opportunities

Proceedings of the OHBM Brainhack 2021

The global pandemic presented new challenges and op-portunities for organizing conferences, and OHBM 2021was no exception. The OHBM Brainhack is an event thatoccurs just prior to the OHBM meeting, typically in-per-son, where scientists of all levels of expertise and interestgather to work and learn together for a few days in a col-laborative hacking-style environment on projects of com-mon interest (1). Building off the success of the OHBM2020 Hackathon (2), the 2021 Open Science SpecialInterest Group came together online to organize a largecoordinated Brainhack event that would take place overthe course of 4 days. The OHBM 2021 Brainhack eventwas organized along two guiding principles, providinga highly inclusive collaborative environment for inter-action between scientists across disciplines and levelsof expertise to push forward important projects thatneed support, also known as the “Hack-Track” of theBrainhack. The second aim of the OHBM Brainhack is toempower scientists to improve the quality of their sci-entific endeavors by providing high-quality hands-ontraining on best practices in open-science approaches.This is best exemplified by the training events providedby the “Train-Track” at the OHBM 2021 Brainhack. Here,we briefly explain both of these elements of the OHBM2021 Brainhack, before continuing on to the Brainhackproceedings