Speech Science Forum: Dr Jen Chesters

How can non-invasive brain stimulation and imaging be helpful to people who stutter?

As a speech and language therapist, I’m interested in how non-invasive brain stimulation techniques could be used to increase therapy outcomes for people with conditions affecting communication. My research work has focused on developmental stuttering. I will present a randomized controlled trial of  transcranial direct current stimulation that increased the speech fluency of adults who stutter, measured up to six weeks after a five day intervention. This change in fluency was accompanied by changes in brain activity in regions of the speech network that have previously been shown to activate differently in people who stutter. I will discuss how these findings can be integrated into our understanding of developmental stuttering, and inform further work to increase therapy outcomes.