Dilbert creator Scott Adams talks again

Friday, October 27, 2006

Scott Adams, creator of the popular U.S comic strip Dilbert, posted Tuesday in his blog that he spontaneously recovered from Spasmodic Dysphonia, a voice disorder that rendered him incapable of speech.

His blog post, titled Good News Day, describes various efforts he had undergone to self-treat the disorder and "re-map" his brain connections to normal speech. According to Adams, the condition was described to him by a specialist who diagnosed it as incurable.

Hundreds of well wishers have commented with support on his blog page after what Adams said was an 18-month-long battle with the affliction.

"My theory was that the part of my brain responsible for normal speech was still intact, but for some reason had become disconnected from the neural pathways to my vocal cords," Adams wrote.

In what Adams wrote was the "weirdest part of this phenomenon", is a person's ability with the disorder to sing, or to speak in public, or in other contexts of vocal interaction, but not in normal conversation.

For him, the breakthrough to recovery came with the rhyming found in poetry. By reciting "Jack be nimble, Jack be quick. Jack jumped over the candlestick." he was able to find the reinforcement to talk again.

Sources

"Ailing 'Dilbert' Cartoonist Talks Again" — Associated Press, October 27, 2006
"'Dilbert' Cartoonist's Voice Cure Attracts Attention" — Editor & Publisher, October 26, 2006
Scott Adams. "Good News Day" — The Dilbert Blog, October 24, 2006

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