Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Stuttering hijacked for bird lobbying


Check out this webpage on bird conservation. The authors want to convince us that bird conservation is essential for stuttering research! I think this argument is a bit far-fetched, but I would certainly support the conservation of birds:
Bird studies are constantly helping us advance scientifically.

Researchers at the Methodist Neurological Institute (NI) in Houston and Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City used functional MRI to determine that songbirds have a pronounced right-brain response to the sound of songs, establishing a foundational study for future research on songbird models of speech disorders such as stuttering. - Science Daily

The argument might actually go against the aim of the authors, because such stuttering research would involved animal experiments. In research, scientists need to be very careful as not to endanger the human experimental subjects, but such a restriction is not needed for animals especially non-primates. So having an animal model is certainly useful, but I am not convinced that such an animal model exists for stuttering. Stuttering starts around the age of 3, when grammar develops and I just find it hard to see an animal having similar abilities.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Whistling therapy sounds like it has potential as an effective form of emotional release therapy (no science involved, just a hunch).
;)

Yes, the birds must be saved, however...*big eyes regarding the argument presented*