Stutter News and Research

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Soft, wearable robot helps a person with Parkinson's to walk without freezing

Freezing is one of the most common and debilitating symptoms of Parkinson's disease, a neurodegenerative disorder that affects more than 9 million people worldwide.

5 Jan 2024

Calcium channel blockers reverse muscle weakness in animal model of myotonic dystrophy type 1

New research has identified the specific biological mechanism behind the muscle dysfunction found in myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1) and further shows that calcium channel blockers can reverse these symptoms in animal models of the disease.

2 Jan 2024

Speech therapy can help kids who stutter to communicate more confidently

For the parents of children who stutter, managing the communication disorder alone can be stressful and isolating.

28 May 2023

Large study hopes to provide greater insight into the genetics behind stammering

More than 1500 adults and children from the United Kingdom are being recruited for an international study aiming to discover the genes that cause stammering.

6 Oct 2022

Study: Our brains are constantly making predictions at different levels

Our brain works a bit like the autocomplete function on your phone – it is constantly trying to guess the next word when we are listening to a book, reading or conducting a conversation.

4 Aug 2022

Star-shaped brain cells may play a key role in stuttering

Astrocytes -- star-shaped cells in the brain that are actively involved in brain function -- may play an important role in stuttering, a study led by a University of California, Riverside, expert on stuttering has found.

12 Feb 2021

Phase 2 clinical trial at UCR to test first-in-class drug for treatment of stuttering

The School of Medicine at the University of California, Riverside, will serve as lead site for a Phase 2 clinical trial evaluating ecopipam, an investigational first-in-class drug being tested for the treatment of stuttering in adults and Tourette syndrome in pediatric patients.

15 Dec 2020

Neuroscientists investigate how the brain controls the voice

Bats are famous for their sonar-based navigation. They use their extremely sensitive hearing for orientation, emitting ultrasound noises and receiving an image of their surroundings based on the echo.

22 Mar 2020

Socially housed and isolated mice may be poor research models for humans

Animal models can serve as gateways for understanding many human communication disorders. Insights into the genetic paths possibly responsible for conditions such as autism and schizophrenia often begin by studying acoustic behavior in mice.

25 Oct 2019

Investigational drug reduces stuttering symptoms in open-label pilot study

A team led by a psychiatrist at the University of California, Riverside, has tested the orally administered investigational medication ecopipam on adults who stutter in an open-label, uncontrolled clinical trial and found that it reduced their stuttering symptoms from the start of therapy after eight weeks of dosing.

28 Aug 2019

Loss of cells in the brain found to be associated with stuttering

Researchers believe that stuttering - a potentially lifelong and debilitating speech disorder - stems from problems with the circuits in the brain that control speech, but precisely how and where these problems occur is unknown.

19 Aug 2019

International study investigates the genetic cause of stuttering

Researchers need 3,000 Australian stutterers for an international study that is searching for the genes in human DNA which cause stuttering.

18 Aug 2019

New compound blocks genetic cause of familial ALS and frontotemporal dementia

Since the ice bucket challenge went viral in 2014, raising awareness and funding for ALS research, scientists have learned much about a disease that disconnects muscles from nerves, leading to muscle atrophy and eventual death. Their ultimate goal is to create medications capable of stopping ALS in its tracks.

18 Dec 2018

New research lays out potential path for treatment of Huntington’s disease

New research gives scientists a clearer picture of what is happening in the brains of people with Huntington's disease and lays out a potential path for treatment.

14 Dec 2018

Research shines new, explanatory light on link between obesity and cancer

Scientists have made a major discovery that shines a new, explanatory light on the link between obesity and cancer. Their research confirms why the body's immune surveillance systems - led by cancer-fighting Natural Killer cells - stutter and fail in the presence of excess fat.

12 Nov 2018

Interweaving anxiety disorder associated with stuttering remains unrecognized

While stuttering impacts the lives of approximately 1-2 percent of adults and around 4-5 percent of children, the mental health impact of this disorder largely remains unrecognized.

23 Oct 2018

UTSA scientists explore stuttering and develop new technology to optimize brain function

A team of researchers at The University of Texas at San Antonio received a two-year, $387,000 grant, from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to develop technology that will identify brain activity patterns that contribute to stuttering and use that technology to train people how to optimize brain functions.

31 May 2018

Scientists gain crucial insights into cause of stuttering

One percent of adults and five percent of children are unable to achieve what most of us take for granted--speaking fluently. Instead, they struggle with words, often repeating the beginning of a word, for example "G-g-g-g-g-ood morning" or get stuck with single sounds, such as "Ja" for "January" although they know exactly what they want to say.

12 Dec 2017

Clear recommendations can be given only for few stutter therapies, say experts

About 1% of children and adolescents, 0.2% of women, and 0.8% of men suffer from stuttering. However, based on the available studies, clear recommendations can be given only for a few of the currently available stutter therapies.

14 Jul 2017

Stuttering linked to reductions in blood flow in the brain area that controls speech production

A study led by researchers at Children's Hospital Los Angeles demonstrates what lead investigator Bradley Peterson, MD, calls "a critical mass of evidence" of a common underlying lifelong vulnerability in both children and adults who stutter.

4 Jan 2017