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From: Ken St. Louis
Date: 09 Oct 2006
Time: 11:43:33 -0500
Remote Name: 157.182.15.42
Hi Vasu, I have recently become very intrigued with Per Alm's model of stuttering that postulates that we function with two pathways involving the basal gangial as we plan and carry out movements. According to his model, which I don't pretend to understand well, the stutterer has problems with the "medial" system (pathway) but not with the "lateral" system. The lateral system is typically active in such activities as singing, speaking in a nonpropositional way, speaking while simultaneously hearing oneself under DAF, and so on. The medial system is most active in propositional tasks and those that require internally generated timing. What I like about Alm's model is that I can envision a neural "switch" that can go back and forth at predictable and unpredictable times, resulting in stuttering or lack of stuttering. It fits my own experience, i.e., when I went through a period of several months when I could be a stutterer or not simply if I intended either role. More relevant, it fits what I have seen many times clinically, people who can seem to learn to control a "switch" that allows them to bypass their old stuttering "mode" and thereby helps them be fluent versus people who cannot seem to do that consistently or at all. Of course, some aspects of his model may be a stretch (e.g., the connection between stuttering and dystonia) but others have some potentially testable hypotheses (e.g., the different densities of dopamine receptors in the putamen for males and females during the time when stuttering typically begins). Greg may find this all too pseudoscientific. I'll wait and see. <smile> Ken