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From: Ed Feuer
Date: 10/18/03
Time: 8:47:43 PM
Remote Name: 142.161.190.116
Below is part of Luc De Nil's answer to the question "What causes stuttering?" on the Scientific American website at http://www.sciam.com/askexpert_question.cfm?articleID=00003C9F-EFAB-1ECC-8E1C809EC588EF21& catID=3 I wonder how the neural activation of covert stutterers would appear on the neuroimaging technology he describes. Would expectancy, word and sound fears followed by "successful" substitution show up?
--------------------------------------------------------------- "Recently a number of research groups, including the one in our lab, have started to use modern functional neuroimaging technology such as positron emission tomography (PET) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate differences in neural activation between people who stutter and those who do not. The results from these investigations have revealed some interesting differences in how the brain is active in people with stuttering difficulties. Stuttering individuals typically show a general overactivation of the neural systems involved in motor control, including the cerebellum. Many of these neural systems are known to cause difficulties with speech motor control and disruptions of speech fluency in patients who suffer damage to these areas. Conditions that enhance fluency, such as speaking in unison with someone else or behavioural fluency treatment, seem to result in a partial normalization of the activation in these cortical and subcortical regions."