Tim Saltuklaroglu, PhD

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)