The mice were forced to stutter

Scientists have found a gene whose mutation causes stuttering

<url> Researchers have found out that a mutation in the Gnptab gene can lead to stuttering.

The full text of the scientific article can be found in the journal Current Biology (A Mutation Associated with Stuttering Alters Mouse Pup Ultrasonic Vocalizations – VM).

The first author of the article Terra Barnes and her supervisor Tim Holy with stuttering mice.
A picture from the press release of Washington University in St. Louis - WM.

"Despite the fact that only people have the ability to speak, the mechanism of speech itself is based on simpler components. You must control the breathing rate, the movements of the muscles of the tongue and mouth, and initiate movement. These mechanisms are the same, for example, in humans and in mice," comments Tim Hawley, one of the authors of the work.

Scientists analyzed the sounds that mice make when they are in pain, when they meet another mouse or want to attract a rodent of the opposite sex. After that, the researchers bred mice that had a mutation in the Gnptab gene. It turned out that these rodents make much longer pauses between the sounds they make, and repeat individual sounds in series – according to scientists, this corresponds to human stuttering.

Thus, scientists were able to show that stuttering can be caused not only by severe stress or psychological trauma suffered in childhood, but also by genetic mutations. However, scientists have not yet been able to find out exactly how the Gnptab gene is related to speech.

Portal "Eternal Youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru  15.04.2016