In the FCT’s call for exploratory projects, the project entitled “The role of the hyperdirective route in speech production and stuttering” was funded, whose IP is CUIP researcher João Correia. This project is expected to last one and a half years and includes other CUIP researchers on the team, as well as researchers from other countries, namely Germany and Italy.

The aim is to understand the role of the basal ganglia in the initiation of speech production and its relationship with stuttering, using high-density EEG at the University of Algarve, and high-field fMRI (7-Tesla), through collaboration with the University of Jena, in Germany. High-field fMRI will allow the characterization of cortical laminar profiles, while EEG will focus on the temporal dynamics of speech initiation in stuttering using a previously established paradigm of transition between words. The results have the potential to generate advances in the understanding of an extended neural network, which includes, in addition to cortical interactions, the connection of these with subcortical áreas, essential to the initiation of actions, such as speech production.