>*26:00-28:00 "Tension in the throat causes the stutter"* In my opinion: I have tested "the theory of laryngeal tension" quite often. However, no matter how tight/hard I am tensing my laryngeal throat muscles, I am unable to re-produce a speech block - I find that it's impossible to re-create a block by only tensing the vocal cords or other muscles in the throat. I have tested this theory, during the last 2 years, on Zoom with 20 other people who stutter. When I asked them to re-produce a speech block by deliberately tensing as much as possible the muscles in the throat (or any muscles). It was impossible for them to re-produce a speech block by tensing muscles (whether laryngeal muscles, articulatory, respiratory or other speech muscles). I have asked a PhD researcher (who had written dozens of research on stuttering) the same question. He also is not able to replicate a stutter by tensing the speech muscles. He further explained to me, that individuals with MSD or Spastic Dysarthria, have a disorder where they tense the throat muscles and vocal cords with such an intensity that it results in a strained effortful voice, but this almost never leads to speech blocks. Conclusion: So, I believe that if tension doesn't lead to speech blocks, then a more likely reason that we stutter during pressure/tension in the throat, is because of: * For example, we perceive pressure in the throat as **stuttering anticipation**, see this reddit [poll](https://www.reddit.com/r/Stutter/comments/18wyovf/do_you_often_feel_or_know_that_you_will_stutter/), most people have "learned" to associate throat pressure with the belief that stuttering is about to occur \[aka an anticipatory intrusive thought/feeling\] * For example, non-stutterers simply choose/instruct to move speech muscles (and, put complete faith in the automatic feedforward system), however, if PWS replace this with the production or feedback system, such as by attempting to execute speech movements solely with tension - then it will fail - resulting in a block. Because human beings are unable to directly operate the feedforward system, see it for yourself: (1) right now, tense your speech muscles in order to try to move your speech muscles, (2) see? The tension itself isn't what moved them, it's the decision that moved them, makes sense? * muscle tension can also be perceived as "I'm now stuck on a word", reinforcing the imaginary concept of loss of control - as if it's true (it's of course not true, but that doesn't matter as long as we believe it's true), see the example with the hypnotist where the individual in trance tenses the muscles (when grabbing the cup) to trick his brain that the cup weighs a ton (similar to how PWS trick themselves with tension that we are stuck) * For example, muscle tension, especially in severe PWS, is used to let the listener know that we are still speaking, to prevent listeners from abandoning the situation (or interrupting us mid-sentence), see this bullet point as the "stutter state" (as opposed to the non-stutterer state) * For example, muscle tension can also be used to let listeners know that we are not stuttering on purpose (which they may think whenever we stop applying secondary and struggle behaviors), see this bullet point as the stutter state * For example, muscle tension can also simply be a learned response, a bad habit, a coping behavior, such as, because we don't know any better or because of incorrect information, see [classical conditioning](https://www.reddit.com/r/Stutter/comments/196mdrr/the_role_of_classicaloperant_conditioning_in/)