Uncovering The Causes of Stuttering, An Interview With A Neuroscientist

There is no definitive answer to why a person stutters. However, thanks to Frank Guenther and his research lab at Boston University, the mystery of stuttering has become a little clearer. With advances in brain activity monitoring technology, neuroscientists like Frank are able to explore stuttering in exciting new ways. 

Frank joins Maya and Cynthia for a conversation about his research on the underlying causes of stuttering and how it may be related to speech production. 

Other topics mentioned in the episode:

• History of stuttering research and early misconceptions
• Correlations between behavior development in childhood and fluency
• Similarities between stutterers, neurotypical children, and adults with Parkinson’s
• Is there a connection between being bilingual and having a stutter?
• Stuttering differences in males and females
• Opportunities for future stuttering research 

Quotes from the episode: 

“There are probably subtypes of stuttering that we will eventually need to separate out if we truly want to understand the behavior because otherwise we will just keep seeing variability from study to study.”

“Relatively little research has been done in females who stutter so one of the things that we hope to learn from our collaboration with Dr. Chang’s lab is whether there are different developmental trajectories for males and females that might give us more insight into what's happening and why it's more likely that a males will continue to stutter, compared to a female who stuttered as a child.”

Mentioned in the episode:

• Guenther Lab at Boston University
• Speech Neurology Lab at the University of Michigan
• NIH Policy and Guidelines on The Inclusion of Women and Minorities as Subjects in Clinical Research

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