The Difference between Monolingual and Bilingual Stutterers: A Systematic Review

Abstract

The article is a comprehensive review regarding group differences of brain structures, cognitive process, and emotional responses between monolingual people who stutter (MWS) and bilingual people who stutter (BWS). Until now, researchers have been examining MWS and BWS separately, yet the compare between these two groups of people is lacking. In this work, the overview of MWS and BWS are introduced, different types and traits of stutter between MWS and BWS are compared, and the differences between brain structure, executive force, motor control, and cognitive reserve are investigated and synthesized based on previous studies. Both MWS and BWS have executive deficits in speech motor control, while BWS seem to be classified as having greater potential in language inhibitory and switching, thus transferring to general executive control. The conclusions are that BWS generally experience increased neural connectivity due to larger volume of grey and white matter than MWS, and thus gaining cognitive control abilities. Further research is warranted for the bilingual advantage and the exact etiology for stuttering.