With the age of electronics, it was found that hearing your own voice played back to you almost as soon as you speak helps a stutter as well.
人们发现，如果在说话时能够几乎同步地听到自己所说的内容会有助于减缓口吃。
That's called the Delayed Auditory Feedback effect.
这就是所谓的延时听觉反馈效应。
Altering the pitch of the playback gives an extra boost to the effect as well; that's called Frequency Altered Feedback.
并且，改变所听内容的音调会加强这一效应，这就是移频听觉反馈。
Now, researchers at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina have created a small device that combines both these effects in a portable earpiece.
目前，位于美国北卡罗来纳州格林维尔市东卡罗莱纳大学的研究者们已经研发出一种便携式耳机，这种耳机将上文所说的两种效应结合在了一起。
The device fits inside your ear, picks up the sound of you speaking, alters the pitch a little, and plays it back to you.
你只需将耳机放入耳朵，它便会收集你的话语并适当地改变音调，最后在回放给你听。
The first tests look promising: many of the volunteers who had a stutter found that their problem was helped by wearing such an electronic earpiece.
第一批测试看起来效果不错：很多参与实验的口吃志愿者都发现，佩戴上这种电子耳机后，口吃情况有所好转。
Scientists who study stuttering sound a more cautious note: such effects, while real, have shown a tendency to be short-term.
然而，研究口吃的科学家们给出了一个更为谨慎的结论：这些效果固然真实，但持续时间不够长久。
Still,even if it isn't a fix, tiny microelectronic devices like this may indeed be a help–and we may be seeing more and more of them in the future.
但是，即便这一效果不长，像这样的微电子设备确实对口吃有所帮助--相信在以后会有越来越多这样的产品出现。
