Thank you so much! I agree with you that anticipation can create a problem. Personally, I think that, if we anticipate stuttering, we sometimes stutter and other times do not stutter. Yes indeed, an argue could be made that **the intensity of anticipation** might play a role whether the outcome is stuttered or fluent. But in essence, that same **intensity** of stuttering anticipation - that is, if we choose to continue speaking (rather than avoiding) it - can in one moment lead to stuttering, and other times to fluent speech production. I think we can at least agree this far. If this is true, then I think it's save to say that stuttering anticipation (or any other perceived errors in the speech plan) can result in: * a disturbance in dopaminergic activity (abnormal striatal post-synaptic dopamine release) * a deficit in neural processing * an overreliance on controlled processes (via the behavioral inhibition system) disrupting speech motor performance (destabilized speech motor system) * increased anxiety and arousal (in other words, a defensive behavior to a perceived threat) * poor finetuning of the threshold mechanism (to release speech plans for execution) (This mechanism is the ordinary moment to moment regulation of whether or not we speak our thoughts out loud) * disrupted function of the supplementary motor area (SMA) leading to difficulty initiating syllables * dysfunction (i.e., inactivity) of the basal ganglia leading to disordered timing For convenience sake, let's consider above bullet points the hypothesized '**primary unconscious body responses in response to perceived errors**'. You pointed out that overcontraction can also cause stuttering, correct? You see it as a fluency law, I believe. Does that mean that overcontraction should also be added to the list of above bullet points, do you think? (regarding the primary responses as opposed to secondaries) Could you expand further on: contraction and relaxation at the same time results in more tension (and ultimately overcontraction), and how does this guarantee stuttering, and how is addressing this a fluency law? I don't understand that part, but I am eager to learn and I'm open to your viewpoint!