Monday, November 28, 2011

Good mix of keynote speakers

Check out the keynote speakers at the Antwerp Conference: here. It's a definite improvement over last conference. Check also the emergent topics in fluency research: here. This session is for young researchers to present their findings. The conference organizers have definitely taken feedback on board (for example mine), and improved the setup. I will most likely be at the conference, and might propose a contribution.

Thursday, November 24, 2011

First Stuttering Conference in India!!

My good friend and TSB supporter Sachin asked me to put up a link to the first Stuttering Conference in India: check here. He told me that I have many "religious" fans in India!

The meeting is held from December 28th to January 1st in Bhubaneswar (Orissa) on the East Coast. If you live in India, consider taking part! Such conference are a great opportunity to know more about stuttering, possible treatments, and about how other people who stutter deal with their handicap and life.

Mmmmm now that I think about it. I have never been to India... :-)

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Stuttering research goes biochemical

Stuttering research is entering a new phase, the biochemical phase. As far as I know, it's the first research that deals with fundamental biochemical aspects of our brain that are linked to stuttering via genetics research.

Kornfeld on what the three mutations found by Dryana's group do to possibly 10% of us:
...two mutations appear to trap the proteins in the cell’s protein manufacturing center, though some get out before being destroyed. “It’s not an all-or-nothing thing,” Kornfeld says. “Of the material that does get out, its activity is normal.”
But the third mutation causes a larger folding problem and the protein is destroyed just minutes after being made.
I will write more on this in the next post. Fits well into my picture of stuttering...

Kornfeld on therapy: (so you can keep your dream of a cure alive! ,-)
Such findings offer a glimpse at possible future therapies for stuttering. For two of the mutations at least, the problem is not that the protein can’t function, but rather that it

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Questionnaire on Stuttering

Lloyd asks for our support:
I am conducting research about employment and people who stutter for my Master of Public Administration degree at Baruch College in New York City. I have created an anonymous on-line survey.

I am writing to ask if you know people who stutter and fluent speakers who might like to fill out this survey. I am looking for as many unique responses (from both groups) as possible. I encourage you to take the survey as well.  The survey queries attitudes about the Americans with Disabilities Act, among other things.  While this may not be germane to a European audience, I would really like as many respondents as I can get.

Gene therapy for the blind

William pointed me to a BBC report on gene therapy for the blind. I am sure it's still decades away, and might not even be possible theoretically. The intervention is probably very local, but the damage to the speech system and possibly adaptation is distributed.

Think of bad genes as mistakes in a construction plan for a house. Once the house is built, correcting the mistakes are not helping. Of course, the brain is a bit different, because genes instruct the cells to build proteins for a life time. However, the main fibre structure are set at early age and never change again.

Wednesday, November 02, 2011

The Therapist-Patient dictionary

Here is the therapist-patient dictionary. It is actually designed to understand British people, but works equally well for understanding therapists when they talk to you, the patient!!!


Seriously, that's what you have to face up to when you try to discuss science with them! In a clinical environment, I can kind of understand the logic but not in a scientific debate!