DEVELOPMENT STUTTER IN A PATIENT WITH CALLOSAL AGENESIS DISAPPEARS DURING STEROID-THERAPY

A 10-year-old left-handed girl with a developmental stutter and agenes is of the corpus callosum with associated hydrocephalus ceased stutter ing immediately upon initiation of steroid therapy for colitis. Steroi d taper resulted in a recurrence of the stutter and resumption for tre atment of recrudescent colitis caused its disappearance again. Baselin e agenesis of the corpus callosum with hydrocephalus and the patient's course in the face of the known effects of steroids on white matter l end support to the hypothesis that stuttering reflects anomalous domin ance and/or atypical interhemispheric connectivity, as evidenced by th e fact that presumed alterations of white matter tracts affected speec h rhythms/stuttering.