Vagal Tone as a Putative Mechanism for Pragmatic Competence: An Investigation of Carriers of the FMR1 Premutation.
Jessica Klusek, Amanda J Fairchild, Jane E Roberts
PMID 30097759WHAT IT FOUND
Higher resting vagal nerve activity was linked to better pragmatic conversation skills in both FMR1 premutation carriers and controls.
Carriers had more pragmatic violations and lower activity, but this study cannot show cause.
Key findings
01Women with the FMR1 premutation had more pragmatic language difficulties and lower vagal tone than control women.
02Higher vagal tone was associated with better pragmatic competence, and this association did not differ between carriers and controls.
03In a statistical model, vagal tone partially accounted for the link between FMR1 premutation status and pragmatic language ability.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The study was cross-sectional, so it cannot show that vagal tone caused pragmatic difficulties or that changing vagal tone would change language. The sample was small and limited to women who were mothers of a child with fragile X syndrome, so findings may not apply to men, children, or women without affected children. The sample was mostly Caucasian, with 92% of the premutation group and 86% of controls reported as Caucasian, which limits generalization. One pragmatic rater was not blind to group membership because she had assessed the participants. The authors did not have enough sample size to formally test whether CGG repeat length influenced vagal tone and pragmatics together. The authors could not completely separate the effects of the FMR1 premutation from the stress of parenting a child with a disability.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflict of interest. The supplied text does not report funding.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that raising vagal tone will improve pragmatic language. The study was cross-sectional and measured associations, so it cannot show that vagal tone causes pragmatic difficulties or that treatment targeting it would help.