Stuttering mice bred by scientists

STUTTERING mice with a “squeak defect” version of the affliction suffered by King George VI are being bred by scientists.

They hope the creatures, given human gene mutations, will help them better understand the disorder graphically depicted by award-winning actor Colin Firth in the film The King’s Speech.

Researchers have already started making ultrasonic recordings of sounds made by the genetically-engineered mice.

But they are still trying to solve the problem of recognising when an animal is experiencing the mouse equivalent of stuttering.

If a stuttering mouse can be developed it will provide a valuable research tool which could pave the way to drug treatments.

Stuttering is defined as “involuntary hesitation, sound prolongation or repetition of syllables in speech”.

Sufferers may find themselves held back at school or turned down for jobs. Often they struggle continuously to avoid words and phrases that cause them embarrassment.

In ancient Greece stuttering was treated by placing pebbles in the mouths of affected people — a technique tried on George VI by a hapless physician in The King’s Speech.

Other approaches have included hypnosis and psychotherapy as well as physical and vocal exercises.

Although stuttering has been blamed on bad parenting — a now discredited idea — and psychological factors, its causes remain a mystery.

Sufferer Jennifer McGuire, 30, told the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s annual meeting in Washington DC how her life had been ruined by stuttering since the age of four.

She said: “Stuttering has clouded my whole life. Only very recently has it not happened that it’s been the first thing I think about when I get up in the morning and the last thing before I go to bed.

“Through my childhood its dictated what I ordered in restaurants, because it would be easier to say a certain entree even if that’s not what I wanted, and you can extrapolate that throughout every activity of daily life. It’s exhausting.”