Introducing 2025 Lundbeck TBMC Award Winner

The 2025 Lundbeck Turku Brain and Mind Center Research Award was granted to Elina Jaakkola for her paper “Localization of stuttering based on causal brain lesions.” This international study, led by Catherine Theys, Elina Jaakkola, and Juho Joutsa, identified the precise brain network involved in stuttering.

Using lesion-network mapping, the team discovered that lesions causing stuttering—though scattered across the brain—were all functionally connected to a common network centred on the left putamen, claustrum, and amygdalostriatal transition area. Elina’s contribution has advanced the understanding of stuttering from an isolated brain region toward a network-based view, opening new paths for targeted neuromodulation and brain-circuit therapies in speech disorders.

Read the article here: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11146419/