Tim Saltuklaroglu, PhD
Tim Saltuklaroglu, PhD
Professor
tsaltukl@uthsc.edu
865.974.0355
- Stuttering
- Speech Perception
- Electroencaphalography
Dr. Tim Saltuklaroglu has been with UT since 2004. His research primarily focuses
upon the neural mechanisms associated with stuttering. He and his colleagues use advanced
electroencephalography (EEG) techniques to identify sources of neural activity in
speech perception and speech production tasks, tracking changes in neural activity
in these regions across time. Currently two main sources of activity being investigated
are the sensorimotor mu rhythm and the auditory tau rhythms. They have demonstrated
that adults who stutter have weaker mu rhythms than age and gender matched controls.
Their mu rhythms also respond differently in speech perception tasks. He, also, currently
has a number of ongoing EEG research projects that are uncovering further interesting
neural differences between stuttering and non-stuttering populations, including comparisons
of activity in auditory regions between stuttering and non-stuttering adults in speech
perception tasks, comparisons of sensorimoimotor and auditory activity between stuttering
and non-stuttering children in speech perception tasks, comparisons of sensorimoimotor
and auditory activity between stuttering and non-stuttering adults in speech production
tasks, and comparisons of sensorimoimotor and auditory activity in normal speaking
and fluency enhancing conditions in non-stuttering individuals. To identify and temporally
decompose raw EEG data, our lab uses independent component analysis followed by time-frequency
analyses. The goals of the research are to help identify neural EEG markers of stuttering
that may help predict recovery versus persistence in children and provide measures
of therapeutic efficacy in adults. In order to help validate this approach to investigating
neural mechanisms associated with stuttering, our lab has published a number of studies
demonstrating its utility for understanding speech-realted sensorimotor and auditory
activity in speech perception and speech production in non-stuttering individuals.
He currently has a number of ongoing projects that are helping to uncover interplay
between sensorimotor activity and cognition in speech perception in both stuttering
and non-stuttering populations. To enhance understanding in this domain, he is beginning
to connectivity measures to show how sensorimotor and auditory regions communicate
across the time course of speech events. He has also used this approach to investigate
sensorimotor activity in swallowing.
- BA, Washington State University, Pullman (1995)
- M-SLP, University of Alberta, Edmonton (1998)
- PhD, East Carolina University, Greenville (2004)