Sunday, June 10, 2012

Tim Poe: Not stutterer but mental issues??

And the story continues... He is apologizing for his lies, but insists that he did not lie. Does he have a mental disorder making it difficult for him to distinguish between reality and lies? Or is he just putting on a show?? He didn't seem to stutter in the interview either.

Friday, June 08, 2012

Does Tim Poe fake his stutter?

EVERYONE is asking the question..

Tim Poe has told lies about his life as a soldier, and provided a fake picture. He never got the Purple Medal for war injuries. But he seems to have been involved with the Army in some respects. No doubt the full story will emerge very soon.

So let's study his stuttering. As I wrote, I have never heard of a similar story, i.e. a non-stroke brain injury with such clear symptoms and no other apparent deficits at first sight. However, as his injury story is wrong, this fits with my observation that this case would have been unique. But he could have gotten an injury from somewhere else, too.

The real question to me is a) whether he stutters or not, and b) did he exaggerate his stuttering. I have to say that at first sight he sounds rather authentic. He stutters at the right places. However, as I replayed his speech over and over again, I noticed that his non-stuttered speech is very very smooth and controlled. And his stuttering is rather short and does not propagate into tensed non-stuttered speech. So he does not seem to feel a lot of emotional stress during the stuttered syllables. But he did have secondary symptoms during the stuttered syllables. So I am wondering about whether a middle-of-the-road theory is possible. He is a stutterer, knows how it feels to stutters, but has exaggerated his stuttering. Maybe he stuttered as a child. Or he is just a very good actor. Or he really did stutter as severely, and just invented the rest of the story to feel better about himself. And by telling that lie in a small social circle, for example with his fiancée, he might have had to keep it up as he entered the contest and then it just got bigger.

I have no idea. Except that he can sing. And his confident and calm singing must be the result of many many years of practise. His story that his therapist told him to sing in the shower and then he discovered his voice is not adding up, in my view.

And did he also learn to play the guitar while singing in the shower?? ;-)

But who cares... he is famous... and we are not!

P.S. I just listened to an interview with his fiancée. She sounds genuine, but just knows him from after the "injury". Either he had another brain injury and mixes up stuff. Or he completely made up the story...

Tuesday, June 05, 2012

Even neurogenic stutterers can sing



Check out the performance of this ex-soldier who got brain damaged. He stutters but he can sing like all people who started stuttering at a young age. I do not actually know of a similar case in the literature. And it shows that speaking and singing is not the same neurological pathway. Would be interesting to see his brain scans? I am convinced his damage is in one of the loci that Catherine Theys showed us at the Antwerp.