United States: Stuttering is a neurological disorder not a psychological disorder as perceived by many people. Research conducted in Finland has revealed that they have identified the neural network that is impacted in individuals who have the condition of stuttering.
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As per the data from experts committee, it is estimated that 5-10 percent of children and 1 percent of adults stutter. Additionally, as a matter of national news, reports showed that the current President of the US, Joe Biden, revealed he has been a stutterer throughout his life.
The work of the team was published in the Journal Brain on May 27th.
Jpoutsa stated, “Stuttering was once considered a psychological disorder,” “However, with further research, it is now understood to be a brain disorder related to the regulation of speech production,” as US News reported.
However, the exact location of origin inside the brain of a person who stutters has been unknown.
More about the study
In the analyzed study, Joutsa’s group initially selected 20 adults (aged 45 to 87) who all began to stutter after the stroke.
All the strokes which were associated with the stuttering affected one particular network in the brain and this held true despite the fact that the location of the stroke in the brain was different in each patient and the strokes which did not cause stuttering did not impact this particular network.
This is because the different networks in the brain were connected at certain node points.
Then, in the MRI study, Joutsa and his colleagues examined the brains of 20 individuals diagnosed with developmental stutter but without stroke.
They also discovered that this form of stuttering also involved the same nodes of the brain network that have been associated with stroke-induced stuttering.
According to researchers, there was an effect called the “dose-response” effect, which notes that the greater the structural changes in the nodes, the greater the severity of the stuttering.
This means that whichever the cause, stuttering, is a result of alterations in certain connectivity of the brain.
The key components of this network include the putamen, the amygdala, and the claustrum, which are subcortical structures, and the connections between these structures.
Joutsa said, “As major nuclei in the brain, the putamen regulates the motor function, and the amygdala regulates emotions,” and “The claustrum, in turn, acts as a node for several brain networks and relays information between them.”
All of this, it is hoped, may pave the way for the discovery of the cause of the disorder and the search for more effective ways to manage it, according to the researchers.