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Brain Imaging Shows Abnormal White Matter Areas In the Brains of Stutterers
n01 writes: Stuttering — a speech disorder in which sounds, syllables or words are repeated or prolonged — affects more than 70 million people, or about 1% of the population, worldwide. Once treated as a psychological or emotional condition, stuttering can now be traced to brain neuroanatomy and physiology. Two new studies from UC Santa Barbara researchers provide insight into the treatment of the speech disorder as well as understanding its physiological basis. The first paper, published in the American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, finds that the MPI stuttering treatment program, a new treatment developed at UCSB, was twice as effective as the standard best practices protocol. The second study, which appears in the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, uses diffusion spectrum imaging (DSI) in an MRI scanner to identify abnormal areas of white matter in the brains of adult stutterers. According to co-author Janis Ingham, a professor emerita of speech and hearing sciences at UCSB and co-author of both papers, the two studies taken together demonstrate two critical points: A neuroanatomic abnormality exists in the brains of people who stutter, yet they can learn to speak fluently in spite of it.
You gotta flog the dolphin once in a while, to g-g-g-get that baby batter out of the brain!
Mod me down, my New Earth Global Warmingist friends!
I am very unimpressed with their approach.
1. Stutters brain scan was done many times before. A lot of unusual activity was observed. It is typically considered not as "unusual activity causes stuttering", but quite opposite: stuttering causes unusual brain activity. Even better - you can use polygraph (from my opinion the only valid use for it) - breathing pattern, heart rate - give very clear pattern when stuttering. Much better than MRI.
2. They mention standard approach as "which teaches stutterers to prolong their speech" - this is plain WRONG. There are dozens of approaches: breathing control, relaxation, internal pace rate, etc. They have very different efficiency in different people. When the match is right - the result can be amazing. The problem - the match is seldom. And this guy tell that his stupid Ipad application would work for everyone - he looks like a snake oil merchant.
3. There are many different kind of stuttering. There are can be spasms in beating, lips, tongue, stuttering without spasms etc. And this guy tells that his approach would work for everyone.
4. He tells nothing about replaces. This is the most difficult issue with stuttering treatment. Typical situation - very good speech for half a year. And then stuttering comes back. Nobody knows why.
I was a stutterer, and strongly blame psychological reasons (ever meet my mother?). I suspect some of us have psychological problems, some neurological (so this research says).
I'd be interested if psychological problems caused neurological issues.
"The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes" - Winston Churchill
I know just what you mean. I've been a moderate/severe stutterer all my life, and I come from a long line of stutterers, passed down the maternal line.
Yes, emotional state and fatigue make it worse, but I've found that facing fears about stuttering in social situations has been the largest help in "getting over" it.
High school graduation was rough. I had practiced my salutatory speech until I was fluent, and I practiced in front of small groups of people, but when I faced a crowd of thousands of people in Reunion Arena in Dallas, all the practice went flying away. I stuttered and stammered through the entire speech. When I received a standing ovation, I didn't know if they were congratulating me or just massively relieved it was all over, but I did not know then that the worst speech event of my life had just passed.
Was anxious over high intensity social situations, but I learned I live through them. In college, I dated a very high powered girl who was the chair of the Endowed Lecture Series at Texas A&M. One time I was her escort to a reception following a lecture hosting Henry Kissinger, Zbigniew Brzezinski, and a number of other foreign policy luminaries. I was so anxious about the speech situations, as she quietly pointed out the rich, famous, and powereful to me, that I didn't notice Henry Kissinger near me. I whirled around to help with some detail, and I ran over Kissinger, knocking him to the ground. Hey, I just messed up a social situation, and I didn't even have to speak to do it!!! He was very gracious, but for some reason my girlfriend did not have me escort her to any more receptions. Oops.
I received more speech therapy in graduate school, and that's where they determined there really was some kind of neurological defect that was playing a part in the tendency toward stuttering. But there was nothing to do about that, and I had already mastered all the coping techniques that were available at the time, so it was time to move on with my life.
At my wedding, to a childhood friend and, coincidentally, a speech pathologist, I was so enamored seeing her float down the aisle that I was absolutely flawless with my speech.
After college, I started work for a telecommunications manufacturer -- pretty funny for a guy who was terrified of the telephone. But that job helped me deal with that fear. Now, the telephone holds no fear for me at all.
Now, I teach classes, lead teams, speak in front of large groups of people, sing, act -- it's all good. Sometimes there have been bobbles with the speech, but nothing that's significant. And yes, there has never, in my entire life, been any stuttering during singing or acting.
I admit it is a good feeling knowing that my four children would never suffer the speech related fears I did, though!
And speaking different languages.
I've had a stammer all my life, but it doesn't present when I speak another language, even on the sort of vowel sounds that would normally make me stick terribly.
yes, www.dotcomforwardslash.com is my real URL.
yeah I know what you mean. I got a taste of DAF myself in speech therapy in high school for my stutter, and I couldn't tolerate it, drove me absolutely nuts.
in fact, I tried a number of different approaches in speech therapy when I was a kid, and none of it worked. eventually I said f-it to therapy and made a go of fixing it on my own. I'm pleased to say that whatever I did worked, such that today (and for the last 15-20 years, since college) I stutter so infrequently that when I do, people who don't know me often think I'm making a joke or otherwise screwing around. for all intents and purposes I'm now completely fluent, although being really tired or really agitated / anxious exacerbates it. those situations don't occur very often, thankfully.
what I found that *did* work though, was a combination of two things :
the first is something I like to call "speech buffering." simply put, this is the act of thinking about what I'm going to say just before I say it. I do this in real-time while I'm speaking, and the buffer only contains one or maybe two words, but that's enough. this is *not* composing an entire thought in my head before I say it - that level of composition isn't necessary. I think the buffering works by creating a better flow between syllables, such that I expect and mentally map the sounds before they get executed. I think I still do it, but I've been doing it for so long I'm not even particularly conscious of it at this point.
the second thing I credit with really helping to resolve my stutter involved learning how to calm myself down when I get anxious about speaking - clear the mind, regulate the breathing, slow the heart rate. I found this to be really useful because public speaking has always made me nervous, and being anxious exacerbates my disfluency.
however, between these two strategies - speech buffering and meditation / breathing exercises - I've been able to speak in front of large groups of strangers, speak before televised city council meetings, give presentations at work, etc., all with negligible disfluency.
worked really well for me, maybe it can work for someone else.