Who we are

Steffen Schuster studied architecture and his brother Frank Schuster studied aerospace engineering at the University of Stuttgart (Germany).

We decided to play an active role in medical research after reading journal articles concerning less effective and less accepted laryngeal botulinum toxin injections (into the vocal folds) in stuttering adults. Such injections have been practiced before in the treatment of adductor spasmodic dysphonia, a subtype of laryngeal dystonia. Between 2001 and 2008, we initiated some attempts to ameliorate the effectiveness of botulinum toxin injections by changing the laryngeal target muscle, focusing on muscles that rotate the arytenoid cartilages (posterior cricoarytenoid muscles and lateral cricoarytenoid muscles). The injections were administered to Steffen Schuster at otolaryngological and phoniatric clinics of universities in Berlin and Cologne.

However, the injections did not have marked effects. Feeling that the brain compensated automatically for the injections allowing the abnormal laryngeal movements to continue and knowing that the artificial fluency of speech techniques never becomes spontaneous, we decided to focus on the idea that stuttering itself could be a spontaneous compensation for a (still hypothetical) sensory defect and that this could be the link between stuttering and dystonia.

Having realised the limited effects of "underground research", we surfaced with a citable publication detailing our hypothetical approach [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] and with the launch of this website (in June 2012). We hope that this will make the initiation of empirical research easier.