Oxford Science Café

September 2026

The Science of Stuttering Is Settled. Please Ignore the Mice

Dr. Greg Snyder, Communication Sciences & Disorders, University of Mississippi.

For nearly four thousand years, people have tried to explain stuttering. Its cause has been blamed on curses, the humors, the tongue, personality, family relationships, and learned behavior. Today’s science points to genetics and neurophysiology, but history suggests that even useful explanations can leave important evidence unseen.

Communication disorders scientist Greg Snyder traces this story from ancient Egypt and Greek pebbles through tongue surgery, modern genetics, a mouse carrying a human stuttering-linked mutation, and exploratory metabolic testing. Drawing on Thomas Kuhn and Robert Pirsig, he asks what the settled science of stuttering has made invisible. What comes into view when we drop our value rigidity?

Old and new evidence suggests that the biology underlying stuttering extends beyond speech, with possible parallels in signed language and handwriting. This raises a stranger possibility. What if the hallmark repetitions and prolongations are not simply failures, but attempts by the nervous system to restart or stabilize an interrupted movement? If the visible stutter is partly a solution to a deeper problem, how might treatment change if it worked *with the stuttered brain* rather than merely suppressing what listeners do not want to hear?

Tuesday, September 15, 2026, 6:00pm - 7:00pm
Heartbreak Coffee, 265 North Lamar Blvd, Oxford
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