Let’s analyze this scientific finding
A study published in 2021 that used fMRI to examine brain activity in individuals who stutter while they read aloud and listened to speech. The study found that brain areas involved in speech planning and execution, such as the left inferior frontal gyrus and left supplementary motor area, showed increased activity in individuals who stuttered compared to controls.
The fact
Science found that the brain of people who stutter are working differently. Particularly in the area responsible for Speech Planning and Execution. That is the fact.
The Question
The question we now need to ask ourselve is why the brain areas involved in speech plannign and execution showed increased activity?
Is that difference in activity causing our stuttering or is our stuttering causing this difference in brain activity.
What we already know
All people who stutter know that because we don’t want to stutter, we spend a significant amount of time thinking about the words we want to use to assess if these words will be difficult to utter or not. We sometimes will find a synonym for a word that will be hard to enunciate.
This planning activity alone would make the brain areas of people who stutter more active compared to people who don’t stutter.
Conclusion
Although this study is interesting, I don’t think we are learning something new. We already know that people who stutter take more time in planning their speech.
Thanks to this study, we can now measure that and see it in our brain.
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