[ Contents | Search | Next | Previous | Up ]
From: Ken Logan
Date: 25 Oct 2004
Time: 13:09:02 -0500
Remote Name: 128.227.115.216
Dear Janet: Oh, okay...I see where you're going...it's an important question to address and I'm not sure I have a very good answer at present! At a very superficial level (and I'm sure this isn't news to you), I suppose that those tasks that evoke "nonstuttered speech" for many PWS (e.g., talking while listening to choral speech; using silent speech, singing) reflect activation patterns that either circumvent or facilitate those neural regions/processes that are critical to stuttered speech. Imaging studies have shown, for example, that singing and speaking differ considerably in terms of their underlying neural organization. I suspect that these other tasks do, as well. Now, what happens when we add phonological problems, syntactic problems, and so forth to the mix? I agree with you that these problems are in many ways distinct from one another (i.e., syntax problems don't cause stuttering). Still, these somewhat distinct problems can interact, perhaps through "3rd party" processes (e.g., syntax formulation difficulties might lead to increased time pressure to communicate which might lead to an increase in stuttered speech). Obviously, that needs to be studied further. Also, to clarify, in the previous post, I mentioned altered auditory feedback only because it has been associated with "nonstuttered speech." Well, I'm not sure that I've responded to your post very satisfactorily, but I'll stop for now. Thanks for the stimulating post...Ken