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From: Anelise Bohnen
Date: 11 Oct 2011
Time: 16:15:24 -0500
Remote Name: 187.36.0.118
Dear Daniel Your comments are very nice. I still have lots of questions about stuttering etiology, as everyone who is involved with this disorder also has. My statement is derived from many hours of readings and discussions with experts, including Dr Gerald Maguire, who was part of my doctorate committee. If 97% of stutterings are on the first syllable of words, it seems that the problem is a difficulty in the word initiation process. I have been conducting an investigation on what can be seen in the person who stutter's larynx, during spontaneous speech and reading. Up to now, I found 18 movements not seen in the fluent speaker's larynx. Most of these 18 different movements happen before phonation is initiated. So, if what neurosciences tell us about dopamine is correct, when the initial part of the word is finally out, the rest just follows. In my analysis I also found stutterings on second and third syllables of words. But these findings were not statistically significant, once 97% of the time they were on the first. This means there is a lot more to understand about the relationship between the basal ganglia and stuttering. About dopamine and prolactin: I do know Per Alm's writings. He can surely explain these interactions a lot better than I. Dr Maguire also mentions prolactin when discussing the side effects of olanzapine and asenapine. Both Alm and Maguire are very easy to talk to. They surely will guide you (and us) to a better understanding of these matters. Intermittence is one of the most intriguing and constant characteristics of stuttering. And certainly has to be looked at in depth. It can generate very different evaluation results of one PWS, depending on the day or the time of the day when the samples are collected. Stuttering evaluation protocols should take this feature in consideration as related with dopamine and other "agents" as you say. Hopefully, in the near future researchers will give us some answers about this matter as well. Thank you so much. Anelise