A Note on Reduced Auditory Pain Threshold in 44 Stuttering Children

Abstract The threshold of auditory pain has been measured in 44 children referred for stuttering and in 44 control children matched for age and taken from schools in the same geographical area. Pure tone sound was applied via headphones over frequencies from 60 Hz to 300 Hz, across a power range from zero to 250 milli watts. The data consisted of threshold figures at 9 frequencies for 35 boys and 9 girls both in the experimental group and the control group. Statistical analysis showed that pain threshold in stutterers is lower than for non-stutters in the groups as a whole, and then when each group is sub-divided for sex, the females have a lower threshold than do the males. When the results are dichotomised in this way, there is still no overlap between stutterers' and nonstutterers' threshold. All the threshold curves have a negative slope with frequency, the thresholds being lowest at 300 Hz. These data are a new finding, which requires confirmation; they lend weight to those theories of stuttering which state that stuttering has a pathophysiological basis. The possible site of such an abnormality is discussed.