Brain Mechanisms of Stuttering: Why it Starts, Stops, and Sometime Stays

Ziel

Developmental stuttering is a common neurodevelopmental condition affecting up to 8% of children, of whom one in five continue to stutter into adulthood. Persistent stuttering disrupts communication, undermines mental health, and limits educational and occupational outcomes. Despite decades of research, the neural mechanisms underlying persistence and recovery in stuttering remain poorly understood, and effective interventions for adults remain limited.

The STUTTER project will investigate the brain mechanisms of developmental stuttering across the lifespan, integrating neuroimaging with neuromodulation-based intervention. In children, we will use behavioural measures alongside advanced brain imaging to identify signatures of persistence and recovery, focusing on speech motor control networks and their developmental trajectories. Longitudinal data will allow us to model how these networks change over time and how they relate to individual outcomes. In adults who stutter, we will evaluate the therapeutic potential of non-invasive brain stimulation, delivered alongside speech fluency training, in a randomised controlled trial. Finally, we will investigate auditory–motor integration and speech timing, employing magnetoencephalography (MEG), quantitative MRI and magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) to examine neural oscillations, microstructure and neurochemistry.

Together, these work packages will generate the most comprehensive characterisation to date of the neural basis of stuttering across the lifespan, bridging developmental and clinical neuroscience. By linking mechanisms of speech motor control to clinical outcomes, STUTTER will establish biomarkers of persistence and recovery, and test translational interventions to improve fluency in adults. Beyond stuttering, the project will provide new insights into the neurobiology of speech timing and sensorimotor integration, with implications for other speech and movement disorders.

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