Trying to unravel a flaw in speech

As in the movie "The King's Speech," King George VI struggled with stuttering. In the film, the king's stutter is aggravated by stressful situations, like addressing the public. He speaks better when playing with his daughters. It also helps when he sings his words or inserts profanity, or when loud music keeps him from hearing himself.

Now scientists are starting to untangle the complicated underpinnings of stuttering in hopes of finding better treatment.

Dispelling longstanding misconceptions that the underlying causes are language problems or psychological problems like anxiety or trauma, researchers say stuttering is really a speech-production problem.