Stuttering Is Caused by Bad Genes

Stuttering is a problem that affects a relatively large number of people, forcing them to experience a lower quality of life, and at times subjecting themselves to ridicule coming from their peers, co-workers, and so on. Some graduates, for example, have difficulties in getting a job, and this is all caused by a communication disorder that may have genetic causes, a new study has learned. The investigation has also revealed the genetic mutations, or alterations, that seem to cause stuttering, as well as their locations.

LiveScience reports that all the recently discovered mutations have been pinpointed on three genes. Experts believe that these alterations may be causing glitches in the way cells dispose of their excretion products, which need to be eliminated from the body. “For hundreds of years, the cause of stuttering has remained a mystery for researchers and health care professionals alike, not to mention people who stutter and their families. This is the first study to pinpoint specific gene mutations as the potential cause of stuttering,” expert Dr. James F. Battey, Jr. says.

He is the director of the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), the initiative that conducted this investigation. Battey believes that the newfound knowledge could be put to good use for developing novel therapies on how to handle the condition, and improve the patients' quality of life. Details of the research were published in the February 10 online issue of the esteemed scientific journal New England Journal of Medicine. International statistics show that about one percent of the global population stutters, which means that these people cannot properly communicate with others.

In order to get a better view of the causes behind stuttering, the team at NIDCD plans to conduct a worldwide genetic investigation into many ethnicities, so as to pinpoint exactly the variations that are responsible for the speech impairment. The work that led to the new conclusion was only conducted on a small population sample, and the researchers discovered that about nine percent of the individuals involved had a variation of at least one of the three genes.