Stuttering: neural circuits involved

King Georges VI, Winston Churchill, Marylin Monroe and François Bayrou… The link between all these personalities? Stuttering. A disorder that affects verbal communication that appears between 2 and 6 years old, and disrupts the daily lives of 1% of the world’s population. Difficulties related to molecular abnormalities in the brain, according to a study published in the JAMA.

Researchers at the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles confirm that stuttering is associated with alterations in neurons located in the brain area of ​​speech. To show this, scientists have used for the first time magnetic resonance spectrometry, an imaging technique complementary to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) that allows the movement of molecules in cells to be visualized.

Nearly 100 adults and children, stutterers or not, have agreed to participate in this work. Thanks to the study of their brains, the research team discovered abnormalities in the neural circuits involved in language and emotional memory (responsible for regulating emotions), regardless of the age of the affected volunteers. of stuttering.

Stuttering is not inevitable

“Attention-related portions of the brain are associated with neural circuits important in controlling behavior,” explains Professor Bradley Peterson, professor of child psychiatry. People who have changes in these areas seem to be more at risk of stuttering, and of developing severe stuttering. Additionally, emotions like anxiety and stress make stuttering worse, presumably because these altered circuits interact with language and attention control. “

But the work manager wants to be reassuring and stresses that 8 out of 10 children recover spontaneously and will be rid of stuttering in adulthood. For the remaining 20%, this disorder is not inevitable if it is taken care of early (before 5 years), due to cerebral plasticity. With the help of therapy at the speech therapist, children will be able to overcome it, or in any case to tame it.