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A Chinese study has concluded that only one week of speech therapy may reorganize the brain, helping to reduce stuttering.

The study was published in the August 8, 2012, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

Researchers studied 28 people with stuttering and 13 people who had no stutter problems. About half of the stutter group went to a week of therapy sessions three times a day. The other half and the 13 non-stutterers received no therapy.

With no time limit, the participants were asked to repeat two-syllable words that were spoken to them and then read words shown to them. The average scores on stuttering tests and percent of stuttered syllables improved for those who received the therapy. There was no change in scores for the stutterers who did not receive therapy.

Study author Chunming Lu from the Beijing Normal University in China said the results highlighted many things.

"These results show that the brain can reorganize itself with therapy, and that changes in the cerebellum are a result of the brain compensating for stuttering," Lu said. "They also provide evidence that the structure of the pars opercularis area of the brain is altered in people with stuttering."

Researchers used brain scans to measure the thickness of the cerebral cortex in the brain for all participants at the beginning and end of the study. They also measured the interactions between areas of the brain while at rest, called resting state functional connectivity.

Thickness and strength of interactions was reduced in an area of the brain important in speech and language production called the pars opercularis for those with stuttering compared to the controls. Increased strength of interactions was found in the cerebellum for those with stuttering compared to the controls.

For those who received the therapy, the functional connectivity in the cerebellum was reduced to the same level as that of the controls. There was no change in the pars opercularis area of the brain.

According to the National Stuttering Foundation, stuttering, affects about one percent of adults. Twenty percent of all children may stutter as part of their speech and language development, and about five percent will stutter for six months or more. Seventy-five percent will recover by late childhood.

President of the Stuttering Foundation Jane Fraser said the Chinese study is encouraging.

"It is our experience that a competent therapist can help a person who stutters become fluent in one week, Fraser said. "That is not the challenge; the goal in stuttering therapy is staying fluent - taking what you learn in the therapy setting and transferring it into the real world and maintaining that level of fluency over time.

Fraser also said the study opens the door to new research into long term changes in the brain that would reinforce fluency.

"Whenever we can show that physical changes we make through therapy actually affect the brain in a positive way, it is very reinforcing," Fraser said. "Change doesn't just happen in a vacuum. However, we must again ask ourselves this important question ... do these changes in the brain hold up over time?"

Researchers say the findings should further motivate therapists and researchers in their efforts to determine how therapy works to reorganize the brain and reduce stuttering.