A Genetics and Stuttering Update with Dr. Dennis Drayna from the NIH (Ep. 561)

stuttering, StutterTalk
Dennis Drayna, Ph.D., Senior Investigator, National Institutes of Health

Dr. Dennis Drayna joins Peter Reitzes to provide StutterTalk listeners with an end of the year genetics update. Dr. Drayna discusses recent research, answers listener questions and reports that his team at the NIH recently discovered a fourth stuttering gene. Dr. Drayna shares that these four stuttering genes account for between 12-20% of stuttering cases worldwide. The interview ends with a fascinating discussion regarding research in progress which looks at the vocalizations of mice engineered to carry a mutated gene and the speech of people of people who stutter. Dr. Drayna reports that there is a difference in “the timing of vocalizations” and something “not quite right” in the mice with the mutated gene which may be similar to human stuttering.

Dennis Drayna, Ph.D., is Senior Investigator at the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Read more about Dr. Drayna at the NIH website here. Dr. Drayna’s other StutterTalk appearances are archived here.

Related Links:

  • Association between Rare Variants in AP4E1, a Component of Intracellular Trafficking, and Persistent Stuttering (abstract)
  • Mucolipidosis types II and III and non-syndromic stuttering are associated with different variants in the same genes (abstract)
  • Towards an animal model of stuttering; Mice with mutations in the lysosomal enzyme sorting pathway have abnormal vocalizations similar to humans who stutter (abstract)
  • What Causes Stuttering with Dr. Dennis Drayna from the NIH (StutterTalk Ep. 560)
  • Ask. Dr. Dennis Drayna from the NIH about Genetics and Stuttering (StutterTalk Ep. 500)
  • NIH researchers pinpoint additional gene tied to persistent stuttering (link)
  • How NIDCD research is leading to an understanding of stuttering (videocast featuring Dr. Drayna)
  • Did Neanderthals Stutter? – with Dr. Dennis Drayna from the NIH (StutterTalk Ep.  378)