Stuttering

Abstract

Stuttering has been with us throughout time. It is global, pan-cultural, and is noted in all languages. Of the adult population, 1-2% stutter; 4% of children stutter. Any theory purporting to explain stuttering must explain the cocontraction of laryngeal agonists and antagonists, genetic findings of stuttering, the male sexual bias, and the fluency evoking paradigms of singing, speaking while inhaling, white noise, and delayed auditory feedback. This paper presents a neuro-laryngeal analysis of stuttering that attempts to correlate these phenomena. Various neurophysiologic mechanisms of cerebral/laryngeal/auditory systems will be discussed.