Exploring Novel Therapies

While stuttering therapy can be helpful both in terms of acceptance one’s self as a stutterer and also learning speaking strategies that can help some of the time, gains made in therapy are often short-lived or unsustainable. Better therapies are needed. The lab is particularly interested in exploring the utility of novel therapies, such as psychedelics and neuromodulation. We recently conducted an exploratory investigation of stutterers’ experiences on psychedelics as an initial step towards determining whether this line of research should be pursued further (e.g., in a randomized clinical trial). In addition, we are currently running a study that tests the impact of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on stuttering. tDCS is a safe, non-invasive neuromodulation technique that sends an electrical current into the brain to alter brain function. The idea is that by altering critical brain areas involved in stuttering, we may be able to facilitate forward-moving speech (i.e., make speaking a bit easier) in stutterers.  

If you are a person who stutterers or have a child  who stutters or is likely to stutter (based on family history), and you might be interested in participating in any of our studies, please email savvylab@nyu.edu.