Monday, February 15, 2010

Subtype Brain imaging!

I have always been concerned that subtypes are significantly obscuring the experimental data of all sorts from brain imaging to behavioural studies. The gene discovery has highlighted what we already knew before: Different genes can cause or shape the development of stuttering. Think about all those brain imaging studies: those stuttering brains, a mixture of different gene subgroups and other causes. Shouldn't we not just do those with the discovered gene and see what their brains look like? We should get a sharper image! That's what true science is about: zooming into a phenomena. It's very simple: we just need to repeat all the past experiments only for this one subtype.

9 comments:

Dave Rowley said...

If only there was the funding!

Norbert @ BSA said...

Dave - don't know if you read the Alzheimer's Society complaints the other week about only £63 per sufferer spent on research. If we assumed 750,000 PWS in the UK, would you think it's fair to say that about £2/head is spent on research in the UK on research funding for us?

Mark B. said...

Dave

Money will always be a problem, but Tom's point is that we need to be asking specific questions now that the basic "look-see" work has been done. It would be nice to see scan work done on Pakistani stutterers with and without this particular genetic mutation to compare them. In time other genes will be found, and you could compare them and ask if they have the same effects on brain function.

Tom Weidig said...

Well Norbert you have to do something about this then! ;-)

Norbert @ BSA said...

I need the data first.

Tom Weidig said...

Which data do you need?

Norbert @ BSA said...

See my query to Dave....

preterosso said...

I agree that talking too much about sub-types only obscures research, or at least creates the impression that scientists are not even trying to find the real cause of stuttering. However, I don't think they should narrow down neurological research to only those individuals who have the newly discovered gene mutation since they represent a very small minority of examined stutterers. It would be like researching the development of cancer in only smoking patients. Smoking might contribute to the development of cancer but it is surely not the main cause or the key to understanding the disease.

Tom Weidig said...

To Preterosso,

You misunderstand my point. I have exactly the opposite view.

Not looking at sub-types but mixing them all together is obscuring research and we need to look at each separately if we want to find fine details.