When fingers start tapping, the music must be striking a chord
2011-02-20
(Press-News.org) Washington (Thursday, February 17) — According to University of Toronto speech-language pathologist Luc De Nil, the beat could be revealing such things as how children master one of the most complex tasks of all – speech.
"The rapid and precise muscle movements of speech must be the most intricate, yet poorly understood, of all the sensory-motor skills," says De Nil.
De Nil's interest in finger-tapping came out of his group's previous work on adults who stutter. His team discovered that they have problems in acquiring new and unusual tapping sequences and not just speech. The research suggests an underlying neural basis for the motor deficit.
The researchers tested the abilities of stuttering adults to learn both speech and tapping sequences. In some experiments, the participants were given extensive practice lasting more than one day. Other studies investigated the effects on the accuracy of a speaker's performance when motor learning was disrupted. To follow up, the investigators use magnetic resonance imaging and fMRI to observe and analyze the neural processes underlying speech production in children and adults who stutter.
"We turned to children next because we wanted to know if the adult data was relevant to them and if giving them finger and speech tasks would let us observe motor skills as they develop in both stutterers and non-stutterers."
De Nil will discuss some of the findings at this week's meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington, D.C. He will take part in the session From Freud to fMRI: Untangling the Mystery of Stuttering on Sunday, February 20, from 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., Room 146A, Washington Convention Center.
The session will also be the subject of a special AAAS news briefing on Saturday. Newsroom participants should check their schedules for the location and time.
INFORMATION:
De Nil's research is funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
Contacts:
Luc De Nil
University of Toronto
Tel.: 1-416-978-1789
E-mail: luc.denil@utoronto.ca
Arnet Sheppard
NSERC
Tel.: 1-613-293-3502
E-mail: arnet.sheppard@nserc-crsng.gc.ca
END
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2011-02-20
ANN ARBOR, Mich.---The Mimosa plant, which folds its leaves when they're touched, is inspiring a new class of adaptive structures designed to twist, bend, stiffen and even heal themselves. University of Michigan researchers are leading their development.
Mechanical engineering professor Kon-Well Wang will present the team's latest work Feb. 19 at the American Association for the Advancement of Science's 2011 Annual Meeting in Washington D.C. He will also speak at a news briefing earlier that day. Wang is the Stephan P. Timoshenko Collegiate Professor of Mechanical Engineering ...
2011-02-20
Using the super-sharp radio "vision" of astronomy's most precise telescope, scientists have extended a directly-measured "yardstick" three times farther into the cosmos than ever before, an achievement with important implications for numerous areas of astrophysics, including determining the nature of Dark Energy, which constitutes 70 percent of the Universe. The continent-wide Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) also is redrawing the map of our home Galaxy and is poised to yield tantalizing new information about extrasolar planets, among many other cutting-edge research projects.
The ...
2011-02-20
At this year's American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) meeting in Washington, D.C., February 17 to 21, Caltech researchers will present topics ranging from solar and renewable energy solutions to the latest advancements in bioengineering. Caltech's Alice S. Huang, AAAS president, will deliver the President's Address at the opening ceremony, highlighting this year's AAAS theme, "Science Without Borders."
Friday, February 18
Session: Portraits of the California Energy System in 2050: Cutting Emissions by 80 Percent
Title: The Future of Game-Changing ...
2011-02-20
Arthroscopic rotator cuff repair is highly effective and provides durable results five years after surgery, according to a large, prospective study by Hospital for Special Surgery investigators. The study also surprisingly revealed that the rotator cuff has the ability to heal even when early imaging studies have found a defect at the site of repair. The research will be presented at the upcoming American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons (ASES) 2011 Specialty Day meeting, to be held Feb. 19 in San Diego, Calif., following the annual meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic ...
2011-02-20
Sports hernias are commonly found in individuals with a mechanical disorder of the hip and can be resolved with surgery to fix the hip disorder alone in some cases, according to a recent study. The research, conducted by investigators at Hospital for Special Surgery, will be presented at the American Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine 2011 Specialty Day meeting, held Feb. 19 in San Diego following the annual meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.
"If individuals have symptoms of athletic pubalgia otherwise known as sports hernia, doctors should carefully ...
2011-02-20
A panel of scientists speaking today at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) unveiled new research and models demonstrating how climate change could increase exposure and risk of human illness originating from ocean, coastal and Great Lakes ecosystems, with some studies projecting impacts to be felt within 30 years.
"With 2010 the wettest year on record and third warmest for sea surface temperatures, NOAA and our partners are working to uncover how a changing climate can affect our health and our prosperity," said Jane ...
2011-02-20
This release is available in French.
Washington — New evidence bolsters the notion that deep saline groundwaters in South Africa's Witwatersrand Basin may have remained isolated for many thousands, perhaps even millions, of years.
The study, recently accepted for publication in Chemical Geology, found the noble gas neon dissolved in water in three-kilometre deep crevices.
The unusual neon profile, along with the high salinities and some other unique chemical signatures, is very different from anything seen in molten fluid and gases rising from beneath the Earth's ...
2011-02-20
The NutraSense Company adds another product, ImmunoSmart , to its line of high quality American Made nutritional supplements.
Maintaining optimal health during the cold and flu season is on everyone's mind these days. When your immune system is functioning at its peak, your body can defend itself and keep you well in most cases. But what if you've been running on overdrive since the holidays and you feel depleted? Not eating the right foods? Not getting enough sleep, or stressed at the job? NutraSense carries a unique product called ImmunoSmart which was developed by ...
2011-02-20
One of several UK's top children's causes, the British Association for Adoption and Fostering (BAAF), has a added reason to remember its 30th anniversary this coming year following getting given a GBP100,000 grant from Ladbrokes Bookmaker within the Community Charitable Trust.
BAAF, which provides services so helping to locate families for hundreds of The uk's most vulnerable children and young people every year, is marking a significant milestone since its humble beginnings in 1980 with a number of events along with fundraising programs. Amongst them, a London to Paris ...
2011-02-20
Poggi Bonsi's Agata Collection of Italian Ceramics is made by a family ceramic studio in Montespertoli, Tuscany and features classic shapes and rustic artistry and is suited to many decorating styles from classic to modern. Antiqued glazing, uneven color and distressed areas with an old-world patina add to the rustic elegance of each Tuscan pottery object. During the Renaissance colored glazes were produced using various minerals...iron oxide for green and ferric oxide for yellow to brown tones. The Agata Collection represents this historic hue with its rich Tuscan gold ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] When fingers start tapping, the music must be striking a chord
