Hi, Thank you for your comment and for sharing your experiences. you raise an important question about emotional and physiological factors. Even though you’re outgoing and social, hesitation during explanations may reflect deeper emotional patterns tied to specific life experiences.. such as you pointed out, childhood abuse.. that could increase emotional sensitivity to communication demands, leading to hesitancy in high-pressure situations. Emotional triggers can increase the brain's stress response, which activates the **autonomic nervous system** (e.g., fight-or-flight mechanism). This response can disrupt motor control processes critical for fluent speech. Regarding the physiological standpoint, I think that stuttering has been linked to subtle **differences in brain structure and function**: 1. **Cerebellum and basal ganglia dysfunction**: they basically regulate speech timing and motor control. Here the key question is, how much do significant stimuli affect basal ganglia dysfunction and the thalamus crash? For example, if we are chorally reading - where we distract ourselves from conditioned stimuli - then the thalamus stops looking for more input > no BG dysfunction > no thalamus crash. Result: During choral reading we might speak fluently. Again, to what extent does the moment-to moment fluctation of the execution threshold in response to cues affect the left hemisphere dysfunction? why does interventions from speech therapy often disrupt the [extinction process ](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cPQsXtVOsilnUHL9E9gNTYcfz1pU1nHH/view?usp=sharing)and reinforce [extinction failure](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_wNErk-Pc7-7UW5y8OMa9IdBZUOYE79b/view?usp=sharing)? 2. **Reduced white matter connectivity** between **motor planning areas** (e.g., Broca's area) and execution areas (e.g., primary motor cortex) 3. **Overactivation in the right hemisphere**: When compensating for speech blocks, the brain may over-rely on right-hemisphere regions, which are less efficient for speech processing Regarding the brain defect potentiating emotional responses, I think that stutter triggers (such as "negative emotions") involve neurological predispositions, psychological and environment factors/responses. I argue that emotional stress exacerbates underlying timing and motor coordination issues in the brain, creating a feedback loop. If you’d like to read further on it, I recommend reading: **Chang et al. (2010): "Anomalous White Matter in Stuttering"** – Highlights neural connectivity issues. And: **Ludlow & Loucks (2003): "Neuroimaging and Emotion in Stuttering"** – how emotions modulate neural activity in stuttering. I hope this helps!