title: A muscle spindle abnormity in one laryngeal muscle would be sufficient to cause stuttering.
abstract: Muscle spindles are increasingly recognized as playing a pivotal role in the cause of dystonia. This development and own laryngeal observations that support the idea of causally "well-intentioned" stuttering motivated us to present the following hypothesis: stuttering events compensate for a sensory problem that arises when the abductor/adductor ratio of afferent impulse rates from the posterior cricoarytenoid and lateral cricoarytenoid muscle spindles is abnormally reduced and processed for the occasional determination of the vocal fold position. This hypothesis implies that functional and structural brain abnormalities might be interpreted as secondary compensatory reactions. Verification of this hypothesis (using technologies such as microneurography, dissection and muscle afferent block) is important because its confirmation could relink dystonia and stuttering research, change the direction of stuttering therapy and destigmatize stuttering radically.
authors.affiliation: Römmelesweg 20, 71394 Kernen im Remstal, Germany. schustersh@stuttering-and-dystonia.de
authors.forename: Steffen H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Schuster
authors.forename: Frank M
authors.initials: FM
authors.lastname: Schuster
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D007830:Larynx / Q000002:abnormalities*; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009470:Muscle Spindles / Q000002:abnormalities*; D013342:Stuttering / Q000209:etiology*