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From: Nan Bernstein Ratner
Date: 16 Oct 2012
Time: 11:56:56 -0500
Remote Name: 129.2.25.203
A lot of what we were told years ago about brain structure and function has been changed by recent advances in brain imaging (both functional and structural). Learning clearly changes functional activation patterns, and can be presumed to do so very early, although it is difficult to image young children at onset of stuttering for a host of reasons, including their inability to do tasks and remain still. Recent findings of structural differences between people who stutter, recovered stutterers and typically fluent speakers would seem to imply that brain differences are present before stuttering starts, BUT, this may not be true, either, because brain activity/training can even alter brain anatomy. If you have the opportunity to view or purchase the SFA video featuring Martin Sommer, who works in this research area, I highly recommend it. Finally, lots of emerging work, such as studies reported by De Nil and colleagues, and Katrin Neumann and colleagues, show "normalization" of atypical brain activation patterns following stuttering therapy that produces durable fluency in patients. So, our brains are not cast in stone, nor wired intractibly; learning can change us.