"Dilbert" Creator Gets Voice Back

Scott Adams lost his voice 18 months ago to a disorder called Spasmodic Dysphonia. One day, it returned. He is apparently the first person in history to recover from this malady. Read his account. It is inspirational. I can't find any other word for it.

Comments

I met a guy with that once

[elronxenu]

I met a guy with that condition once. Actually, I hired him to teach a course. Before I learned of his condition.

While teaching the course his voice was like a hoarse whisper. He characterised it as having "forgotten" how to speak. But while telling the class about his voice, he said he could sing. And suddenly as singing his voice was loud and strong.

I wished he did that for the whole course.

Re:I met a guy with that once

[SydShamino]

While it's just a science fiction story, David Brin explores brain maladies that prevent speech - but not song - in the second Uplift trilogy. The "stranger," mentioned in the Wikipedia article on Brightness Reef, suffers from this due to traumatic brain damage. It is a plot device throughout the trilogy.

Given David Brin's scientific background, I tend to consider the science behind his science fiction books to be more accurate than the science in some science books. There's a lot about the brain we don't know, but I think topics like this reveal amazing things about its ability to withstand trauma.

Re:I met a guy with that once

[Speare]

Singing is also a good way to end or control stuttering. Jim Neighbors (aka "PFC Gomer Pyle") and Mel Tillis were both prominent examples of this during their careers. Jim worked his way out of stuttering altogether, while Mel continued to stutter whenever he wasn't singing.

Re:I met a guy with that once

[Pharmboy]

I was hoping someone would bring up Mel Tellis. While he wasn't able to overcome the stuttering, we WAS able to keep a sense of humor about it, and allowed it to be how he was identified. Oh, and yea, he is a hell of a singer as well.

He was the first famous person that I am aware of that proved someone with speach problems can be funny and talented without hiding the speech problem.

scott adams

[trybywrench]

Mr Adams is extremely good at thinking creatively at problems. In the back of one of his books ( i can't remember which ) he talks about his experimentation with affirmations. It was extremely interesting to read about his testing and just the way he thinks. I envy his ability to reason through and logically deciefer things he doesn't initially understand.
 
Nice to hear you got your voice back.. now get back to drawing funny stuff!
 

Re:scott adams

[Anonymous Coward]

If you find it interesting to read about the way he things, try the 'God's Debris' book he wrote. Most of the book has things that 'sound' or 'feel' right, with a large portion of them being downright wrong. The purpose of the book is to figure it out.

(watches the peoples pound on the comment for the title of the book, except the book isn't what most people would think by the title. It is a book loaded with philosophy and semantics and i thought it was really interesting)

Re:scott adams

[Denial93]

The most important fact about that affirmations chapter is that 98% of readers probably never tried it, because it just sounds "wacko" or "supersitious". Especially when he claims to have used it for things he cannot influence subconsciously accodring to any accepted psychological paradigm (e.g. extremely good test results). Sounds like, for lack of a better word, magic or PSI, and being good geeks we ignore that.

It works anyway.

Yes, do see for yourself. Occasionally, I get the creeps thinking about what other stuff might be working as well, if you learn how to trick your brain into doing it. I think Scott Adams indicates the possibility of somewhat paranormal-ish things better than any parapsychologist.

Re:scott adams

[Edmund Blackadder]

But he was never able to use affirmations to get his TV show high ratings. I remember distinclty reading that he was trying to do that.

Which is a shame because the TV show was funny and clever and better than most shows out there.

So, my point is, it does not work all the time.

Re:scott adams

[lgw]

I think it was Adams who said: if you want a successful future, consider the necessary past of that future and do what you can. If you need a lucky break, at least be ready to take advantage of one should it come along. Similarly, avoid the past of an unhappy future - try to eliminate the prerequisites for failure.

Whoever said it was wise, in any case. I think Adams left wisdom behind when he started to believe that affirmations could affect the outside world, however.

Singing vs. Talking

[hellfire]

I've been fascinated with speech conditions, primarily because of the nature of how people end up compensating and communicating. It's definitely related to something neurological, because scientists have shown that, for example, you use different parts of your brain when you speak personally vs when you sing. I've also seen people who, when they act on stage or in screen, speak in perfect diction, tone, and with great command, but if asked to improvise or speak informally, they say umm a lot and/or seem very nervous. A prepared speech in front of many people would often work, neurologically, the same way as an acting or singing performance.

I wish Scott Adams the best. He's one of the gods in the geek pantheon, and it would be sad for him to suffer so when he brings joy to so many of us.

Re:Enlightened

[theskipper]

If you really need an "enlightenment" icon, how about finding a simple Buddha image?

It's generic enough where pretty much everyone would catch on to the meaning.

Let's rename the condition

[hellfire]

In honor of this situation, I say we rename the disease to Dilbert's Syndrome. Note how Dilbert has no mouth? Think about it :)

You think this is callous? Far from it! Again we name it this way in order to honor the first person who kicked it. And I think Scott would enjoy the irony of having a neurological disease named after one of his characters. Scott Adams is all about Irony ;)

Re:Let's rename the condition

[Wilson_6500]

Although I don't know of a Dilbert's Syndrome, there is a condition out there known as Gilbert's Syndrome. It can cause mild jaundice--I think due to elevated bilirubin production or retention.

The kicker, though, is that "Gilbert" in Gilbert's Syndrome is pronounced like "Gheel-bear." You can imagine the trouble we would have with medical professionals calling the renamed disorder "Dheel-bear"'s Syndrome by mistake, and then nobody would know for whom it was named.

Then again, considering the nature of Dilbert's character, failing to achieve this kind of minor fame through the stupidity of a supposedly intelligent section of the population would be almost _too_ appropriate.

Speaking of Scott Adams...

[Wescotte]

I recently stumbled across his book God's Debris (Free PDF file) at http://images.ucomics.com/images/pdfs/sadams/godsd ebris.pdf. I'm not real a big fan of Dilbert and only read a handful of the comics but this book is very interesting.

Tension Myosis Syndrome

[lawpoop]

From Scott's description, it sounds like this could be a manifestation of Tension Myositis Syndrome. TMS is a diagnosis developed by Dr. John Sarno that describes persistent headache, back and muscle pain that is not explained by injury and is resistant to treatment as caused by blocking painful emotion. The brain creates a distraction of physical pain by robbing muscles of oxygen so that the person doesn't have to deal with difficult or socially unacceptable emotions (resentment at the needs of a newborn, stress of a new job, caring for aging parents, etc).

Here are two facts that align with TMS:

• it doesn't have a well-described physical mechanism -- i.e. doctor's don't understand specifically the physical mechanism of the diease
• the fact that it is a phenomena of the muscles align with other TMS diagnoses -- in this case paralysation instead of oxygen deprivation.

Now before any of you claim that the two are mutually contradictory, understand this: the doctors don't have any explanation for *why* Scott's muscles are paralysed. They just are. They have no reason or cause not to be working; they just don't. There is no diease, such as injury, bacteria, virus, or anything that would have paralysed these otherwise working muscles. They just aren't working. But, the person can sing.

The fact that Scott was able to work his way out of it through self-hypnosis, visualization, and practice, seems to indicate that it was something in the mind. Sarno's course of treatment for TMS includes such activities. He also recommends psychotherapy for dealing with emotions.

In fact, in Sarno's recent book _The Divided Mind_, he recounts a story about a famous turn-of-the-century hypnotist who was able to cure a person's muteness, while they were under hypnosis.

I'm not in favor of going to herbs and drumming for medicine. But it seems to me that emotional issues causing physical problems are an unexplored and undertreated area of modern American medicine.

Re:Tension Myosis Syndrome

[Lord Ender]

The doctors don't have any explanation for *why* Scott's muscles are paralysed.

Is that a meaningful qustion? "Why aren't our muscles paralyzed" seems like an equally meaningful question in an old man. Evolution only designs us to get to reproductive age. After that, we're running out of spec. Garbage-in, garbage-out mode, if you will. If age > 25, jump to random memory location and start executing...

Loud Howard?

[linebackn]

Does this have anything to do with the return of Loud Howard? (I wonder?)

I suffered a similar problem

[SEAL]

Mine was of a much more temporary nature but still frightening.

I had been playing basketball at the gym one evening and took a good elbow to the head down in the post that put me on the floor. Hurt, but didn't knock me out or anything. I got up and continued playing the rest of the game. I didn't think much of it at the time. I went home, grabbed a shower and headed for bed. I was single at the time so I didn't chat with anyone at home.

The next day I got up, felt fine, went to work. Someone came over to ask me a question and as I responded, the words were just a jumble. I couldn't pronounce anything. Sounded like I was just mumbling some unintelligible garbage.

My vocal cords were fine. I could make sounds. I could understand people. I could write responses on paper. I just couldn't form words. I headed to the ER.

Anyhow there was nothing they could do for me. The scans showed no dangerous swelling that needed immediate attention, but obviously something had been short circuited in my speech center. I took me a good month+ to get back to where I could speak more or less fluidly again.

For me, it wasn't a "one day I could talk again" sort of thing. I had to work at it every day. I'd practice speaking in the mirror. I could speak very very slowly if I concentrated on each sound I wanted to make.

Anyhow I just wanted to convey some sympathy towards Scott Adams' situation.

Re:I suffered a similar problem

[imbaczek]

You were lucky. I know a person who got hit in the head in her childhood and her words are just that, jumble - also, she can't hear them - but she can read lips and somehow gets by. Oh, and she's nearing 50.

Other neurological disorders

[iambarry]

Seems like Adams also suffers from focal dystonia, "Adams was diagnosed with the condition -- a neurological movement disorder, marked by involuntary muscle spasms--back in 1992...The problem affects his right hand -- the one he uses to draw."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/artic le/2005/05/09/AR2005050901066.html

Isn't it fascinating that we still know so little?

[OfNoAccount]

First up, congratulations to my favourite cartoonist for getting his voice back!

I'm curious though. These days we can image individual atoms, and build things on a molecular scale. Yet in many ways medicine is still in the dark ages - there's so much we don't know or even begin to understand about the human body.

Why? Hard to say. Sure the human body is extremely complex, but it seems to me that modern medicine seems almost archaic at times.

Most common technique for fixing people? A person with a sharp blade - a method most likely pioneered by the ancient Egyptians nearly 5000 yrs ago.

Most common technique for finding out what's happening inside someone? Firing X-rays at a piece of film - a process pretty much unchanged since the late 1800's.

Most common method for curing bacterial infection? Penicillin, a drug over 50 years old.

Pain relief? Aspirin - again nearly 100 years old.

Why isn't medicine evolving as quickly as, say, computing has over the last 100 years? What's holding it back? There are so many "syndromes" and untreatable things out there - why? I can't help feeling we should know and understand far more than we do. Anyone else have any thoughts?

Re:Enlightened

[spun]

Oh, Jeebus! 34 days? I hope she prepared well, that's a long time. I've done three days, that's hard enough. Of course, that was working and going to school, too.

In a related note, I recently saw a documentary about the Tibetan Buddhist monks who starved themselves to death in times of famine to show people that hunger didn't have to turn you into an animal. They ate only bark high in tannins for several weeks before starving themselves so they turned into mummies when they died. Then they strapped themselves down in such a way that if they lost concentration for even a moment and started to nod off, the straps would tighten and cause pain. So they had to remain conscious during the whole starvation process. Of course, that's nothing compared to Quang Duc. Damn. Self immolated and never so much as twitched during the process. Now that's self control.

Brain reset

[owlstead]

When I visited my father(+) in hospital there was this girl of about 21/22 years old. She was just having a normal day when her brain "reversed". Apparently, the brain discovered that something was not going right, and decided to do a full reset. She simply collapsed. The good news was that it should be possible for her to get a full recovery. She was able to speak fine, and actually she was doing some work on her laptop while in hospital, but she had to relearn how to walk. That was her story anyway.

The brain sure can do strange things sometimes. I hope I never have to experience what she experienced, just collapsing out of the blue. I collapsed because of too low blood presure once, and that was scary enough.

Re:There's a problem though

[Apro im]

As someone who has done actual research on modeling the brain using neural networks, I felt I should chime in. Neural networks as traditionally studied in AI are not exactly like real-brain neurons. How do I know this? Because the way real neurons work is still a subject of much debate and research among neuroscientists. Moreover, even given the difficulties, modeling the way neurons work is practically effortless compared to recreating the structure of interconnection in the brain - the heterogeneity of different neuronal types within single regions, the complex intra- and inter-lobe connection topologies, the appropriate synaptic weightings and learning functions, etc.. It's all far beyond current scientific knowledge, not just modern technology. But the fact is that virtually none of this is being done in AI these days - today, it's all being done in the context of verifying neural models.

Just because researchers can use certain neuron simplifications to get similar results to certain parts of brain function (ask me about this some time! I'll talk your ear off...) doesn't mean we know enough to make claims about the root causes of neurological diseases because we've taken an AI course. Moreover, while it's possible that the "speech area"'s (which one is that, again?) neurons have become untrained to signals from "normal speech", amateur analysis really isn't what's called for here - after all, "training the neurons back" is just relearning how to speak - it's hardly something that nobody will have tried. There are a wide variety of non-neuronal/non-synaptic problems (at least in the sense of simple mathematical weighting) that can cause it, and I assure you that far better-informed minds than yours or mine can comment and research them. (Just a for instance, neurotransmitter reuptake or production may have been pushed out of balance. Or, drug interaction may have targeted particular kinds of synapses. Or, while we're about it, the "speech area" may have become overtrained so that no coherent message is coming out off the noise.) In any case, infering neural root causes based on gross behavior is a delicate art, and one that should not be undertaken by armchair neuroscientists.

Migraine symptom

[AlpineR]

I have experienced similar language problems that originated in the brain rather than the vocal cords. Occasionally I get migraines. The first symptoms are visual -- a blind spot in the center of my vision that starts to fill with light and dark zigzags. If I don't take some aspirin quickly, then it progresses to language impairment.

In the language impairment stage, I begin to have trouble speaking my thoughts. I can think of what I want to say abstractly and my vocal abilities work fine, but I have difficulty coming up with the words I need. Listening to speech begins to feel like listening to a foreign language, just a jumble of sounds that doesn't seem familiar. At this point I usually go to a dark room and put on wordless music (classical or jazz). After a nap I'm mostly back to normal except I have a heightened awareness of how complicated language is.

The first time I experienced this language impairment it really scared me. I was trying to talk on the phone and felt very confused, like I had suffered a stroke. (I was in my mid 20's at the time.) Since I've learned that it's just part of a migraine for me and my language abilities will return, it's become an interesting study of mental function.

My mom and sister were around when I had one of these migraines and I had fun reading aloud to them as the language impairment hit. I would look at some text that was familiar, like the title of a book, and read how it appeared to me. It came out as some mixture of dyslexia and gibberish. It's interesting that both written and spoken language is affected. I'll have to test my ability to sing during the next episode.

AlpineR

Re:"A cat?" "No, a bat."

[ummit]

I never thought of that... What a silly bunt!

Has anyone else contemplated the absolutely brilliant way MP successfully got the word "cunt" past the BBC censors here?

Spontaneous Recovery

[DynaSoar]

from this condition has happened before. One case was a woman also with Parkinsons. She suffered a period of amnesia and her voice came back for no apparent reason.

I got to see all kinds of similar improbabilities when I worked an NIDCD http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/

One of my favorites was bilingual people who'd had a stroke and lost one language but not the other. Completely mystifying.