We do not update this website any more. Please visit stuttering-and-dystonia.de
Dear Visitor,
The causal mechanisms of stuttering and of the primary forms of the movement disorder dystonia are still a matter of debate. In this website, we present our project to combine and to rationalise the medical research into the causes of stuttering and dystonia.
There are many more people who stutter than people who suffer from the classical types of dystonia (e. g. cervical dystonia, spasmodic dysphonia and writer's cramp). Therefore the causal linking of these disorders may reveal stuttering to be the huge underwater part of the dystonia "iceberg” (abstracted in our project logo).
Having technical backgrounds, we aim in our research principles to apply a very rational approach to the defect research. Stuttering ourselves, we aim to prioritise patient interests.
We attempt to publish ideas and results in peer-reviewed medical journals. Details concerning submission or revision of such articles will be published as supplementary material on this website. You will also find papers that have not been submitted or that have been rejected.
Our starting point is the hypothesis that peripheral sensory abnormalities (e.g. of certain muscle spindles) would be sufficient to cause, as compensations, stuttering and certain types of primary dystonia in completely normal central nervous processes. This hypothesis implies that existing central nervous abnormities can be interpreted as secondary compensations that affect the (normal) situational and task-specific variability of symptom severity.
Dystonia research foundations and patient organizations can use our theoretical material for their own initiatives or give us a mandate for the promotion of this research field. We will send a reminder to selected organizations half-yearly, starting on January 9, 2016.
This website went online when our first article was published [Schuster SH, Schuster FM. A muscle spindle abnormity in one laryngeal muscle would be sufficient to cause stuttering. Med Hypotheses 2012 Jul;79(1):34-7]. Please have a look at the outline of our current activities.
We hope that you find our project interesting (and think about supporting us)
Steffen Schuster Frank Schuster