Sunday, May 18, 2008

No speech but singing with TMS


Check out this cool demonstration on how TMS (transcranial magnetic stimulation) knocks out the speech regions. Watch how his speech stops when TMS is turned on, and how TMS has no impact when he is singing the ryhme! Does this effect sound familar? We who stutter can sing fluently and not speak fluenty!

Here is the Daily Telegraph article, and here is the direct link to the video.

(Thx to Dave Rowley for this tip!)

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

OK--now how is that the same or different from some of the other theories (basal ganglia circuits)?
Lynne

Tom Weidig said...

What this experiment shows is that there must be two pathways to produce sounds: one for speech and one for singing. So it is no wonder that people who stutter can sing the words fluently. Why should both pathways be affected anyway?

Tom

Leys Geddes said...

That's very good, Tom. Has anyone contacted him?

Leys Geddes said...

That's great, Tom. Has anyone contacted him?

Leys Geddes said...

I phoned Vin Walsh - who is Professor of Human Brain Research at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Dept of Psychology, University College London - and he was out. But he emailed back saying that 'I only know a little about stammering but it is interesting. Kate Watkins (whose research I had mentioned)is of course an expert. I am travelling on and off for a few weeks culminating in a conference in Israel in the first week of June. But after the madness of exam marking is over I would be happy to chat (my fear is that as I do not work on stammering and don't know much about it, you will do all the talking)'.

So I very much look forward to speaking to him. Does anyone have any suggestions about the next steps? After talking to him, I would be very happy to pass the relationship on to other people who are better qualified than me.

LEYS