Yes, absolutely! I see a silent block as stemming from a 'freeze response.' Like you mentioned yourself, anxious emotions—or any emotions—can influence this freeze response I think. Still, I think the actual halting of speech movements is more of an *outcome* rather than the freeze response itself. As for the abnormal phasic dopamine release, I don’t see that as the freeze response either. If the freeze response comes first (eventually leading to both the stoppage of articulator movements and the phasic dopamine activity). Maybe the true freeze response is tied to the parasympathetic nervous system (ANS)? (rather than the central nervous system - CNS)