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Stammering (also known as stuttering) is a speech disorder that affects an estimated 70 million people in the world.
According to the support group, British Stammering Association, the disorder “is typically recognised by a tense struggle to get words out... Commonly it involves repeating or prolonging sounds or words, or getting stuck without any sound (silent blocking).”
There have been scientific advancement towards finding the cause and perhaps a solution to stammering.
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The latest scientific study on the disorder has just been released by experts from the Children’s Hospital, Los Angeles.
The study found that there is “a critical mass of evidence” that links blood flow in a part of the brain to speech production.
They found that “regional cerebral blood flow is reduced in the Broca’s area – the region in the frontal lobe of the brain linked to speech production – in persons who stutter.”
The Broca’s area, which can be found in the frontal lobe of one’s brain, plays a critical function in expressive speech. When the brain scans of people who stutter were compared to those of who are ‘fluently healthy’, it was found that the latter had greater blood flow.
Jay Desai, a contributor to the study.
Analysis
Stutterers face numerous challenges including bullying at school and challenges gaining employment. In some cases, parents use corporal punishment as a measure of getting their children to stop stuttering, which they unknowingly believe is a learned trait.
Some famous stutterers include British singer Ed Sheeran, the US Vice President Joe Biden and the actor Samuel L. Jackson.
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There are a number of control measures that can be used to mitigate the effects of stuttering; chief among them being speech therapy.
With the latest discovery, scientists are considering if stimulating blood flow to Broca’s area could serve as a cure to stuttering.
Further studies would be have to carried out to to ascertain the viability of this potential 'cure' to the pleasure of stutterers the world over.