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"Novoje v Izuchenii Plastichnosty Mozga (Materials of the Brain Institute conference)", 2000, p.61.
Electrophysiological correlates of the experimentally evoked fright reaction.
Nabieva T.N.
Brain Institute of Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, 105064, per. Obukha 5, Moscow, Russia.
Many parents consider that their child began to stutter after a sudden fright as a result of a stressful incident. Certainly, there exist objective preconditions and risk factors for stuttering origin, but in the most cases stuttering initiate by sudden fright. In the present investigation we attempted to discover an electrophysiological correlates of a sudden fright in human nervous system. Ten healthy volunteers from 9 to 28 years old participated in an experiment. All of them were informed that during EEG recording they will hear one loud clap behind the right or left ear without the additional warning. Questioning revealed that 3 of 10 participants were not scared by a clap and there were no alterations in their EEG. Other 7 subjects characterized their reaction to a clap as a short-time fright. Specific for each participant wave complexes were discovered in frontal and parietal leads simultaneously with the clap. In some cases, the amplitude of these wave complexes was not distinguished from the background, but in most cases it exceeded background in 2-3 times. The duration of the described complex varied and was specific for every participant. In 2 subjects wave complexes had repeated after 2 and 5 seconds without additional clap, in one case (12-year old boy) wave complex had repeated twice with an interval of 3 seconds. We suppose that the sudden fright initiates certain changes of brain activity not only at the time of incident, but has further consequences for the nervous system.
Key words: stuttering, EEG, fright.
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