News
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Dr. Johanna Walter -
Examination of patients reveals affected network in the brain
Stuttering affects about 1% of adults. In addition to stuttering that develops in early childhood, stuttering can also occur in later adulthood due to brain damage, such as a stroke. Despite all efforts, the neuroanatomical causes were previously unclear. Now, using modern imaging and non-animal testing techniques, Finnish scientists have discovered which structures in the brain are involved in the speech disorder (1).
In their study published in the journal Brain, the researchers examined the locations of the damage in the brains of patients who began to stutter after a stroke (2). Previous studies had already shown that the damage was present in very different areas of the brain. The researchers then compared the positions of the lesions with a functional atlas of the healthy human brain and found that the lesions, which are widely distributed throughout the brain, belong to a common functional network in which the putamen – a region in the cerebrum that is involved in the timing of complex movement sequences – plays a central role.
Finally, the researchers compared the data found for stroke patients with those of people with early childhood stuttering and found that both forms of stuttering involve changes in the same brain network.
The authors conclude that stuttering, regardless of its cause, is based on changes in a common brain network. In the future, this should not only enable improved diagnostics, but also be used to develop new therapies. The work also demonstrates the enormous potential of modern imaging techniques, which enable research into the brain and its diseases without the use of animals and thus provide results relevant to humans.