>I will do this by becoming a neurologist and helping people with neurological conditions while i’m also studying the brain but specifically the part that controls speech and how that ties together with the vocal coords Regarding neurological, I see them in much the same way as researchers, I think they can include both behaviors that were always hardwired (and essentially inherited as explained in my previous comment) as well as behaviors that have been learned and so strongly reinforced that they have become hardwired with time. (so they could include both core behaviors as well as learned (i.e., secondary behaviors, reaction to triggers and interventions). Either way, they tend to manifest as automatic responses that occur without our making any conscious effort to do them (or to avoid them). I think that many of our responses to triggers have become so over-learned that they tend to occur almost automatically. Certainly many people who stutter don’t realise that they have the ability not to respond to them. The triggers that lead to an anticipation of a stutter are memories of having stuttered in similar situations in the past. These memories are triggered automatically and there is very little we can do about them, as they have become circuits that are hardwired into our brains (i.e. they are neurological). We do, however, potentially have some control over how we respond to those memories. Generally, when we are on the spot, in the heat of the moment, the amount of control we have over our responses is quite limited, especially if we are stressed. However, our automatic responses are also modulated by how we interpret (and evaluate) those memories. So, for example, if we interpret instances of stuttering as personal failures or behaviours to be ashamed of we are more likely to respond to the anticipation of stuttering with fear and anxiety and the temptation will be to compulsively try to avoid it. Whereas if we interpret instances of stuttering as learning experiences (which are necessary to create neural pathways) then we will not respond to them with fear or anxiety and the tendency to respond to them with compulsive behaviours will be greatly reduced.