Question
What are the theoretical factors that determine when stutterers are more fluent and less fluent? Has anyone ever measured brain activity, such as EEG, during times of dysfluency to see if the brain acts or reacts in tandem with the stuttering episode?
Answer
I don't recall any theory that specifically addresses this phenomenon, but we do know.... People who stutter tend to stutter more during moments of psychological stress (perception of hostile listeners, dealing with authority figures, belief in the ''difficulty'' of the situation, etc.,) and in places where there is high linguistic demand (longer utterances, content words in adults, etc.,) and often in situations involving unchangeable content (name, address, phone number) or sometimes speaking on the telephone. In contrast, situations in which the person who stutters changes the normal pattern of producing speech (whispering, speaking in a dialect, speaking louder, etc.,) are likely to elicit fluent speech. There is at least one theory that relates to this type of phenomenon ( the ''Anticipatory Struggle/Communicative Failure'' theory by O. Bloodstein). I don't believe that there are additional theories specifically relating to this phenomenon. Regarding EEG activity, I'd suggest that PET studies seem to be more popular currently, and I can tell you the authors of one PET study of people who stutter and normal controls found that when people who stutter produced disfluent seech, they did not activate the same areas of the left hemisphere as did the controls (left hemisphere activity was absent, but similar areas of the right hemisphere were activated, or activity was seen in both hemispheres). Similarly, any differences in auditory processing, speech motor reaction time, and delays in tracking auditory simuli with speech motor responses are believed to be related to the organization of speech, language, and auditory functions in the brains of people who stutter -- people who stutter may be using a less effective part of their brain for processing speech functions (at least when they are stuttering). Given that the right hemisphere is typically associated with emotional expression, one interpretation is that stuttered speech is associated with a great deal of emotion, hence, more right hemisphere activation. The jury is still out, I am happy to help, and I hope this information is useful for you!
Eileen M. Savelkoul,PhD., CCC-SLP
Board Recognized Fluency Specialist
Minot State University
500 University Ave. West
Minot, ND 58707
701-858-3593
Dr. Savelkoul received her BS from Moorhead State University (now Minnesota State Unviersity - Moorhead), her MS from Texas Christian University, and her PhD from the University of Iowa. Her dissertation dealt with an aspect of social interaction among children who stutter and their parents. I am currently a Board Recognized Fluency Specialist, and employed part-time at Minot State University, where her professional work focuses on fluency and fluency disorders.