Foreign Accent Syndrome
Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2006 12:24 pm
I heard the story today about a woman from Newcastle with a strong Geordie accent. She had a stroke and went into a coma. When she woke up, she had a "Jamaican accent". It almost sounds like a joke so I looked it up:
Some patients who suffer brain injuries occasionally lose the ability to talk in their native accent - but now scientists may know why.
The condition, called "foreign accent syndrome", affects only a tiny number of patients.
It can mean that a native English speaker can end up sounding more like Spanish or French.
The way we speak is an important part of our personality and influences the way people interact with us
Dr Jennifer Gurd, neurologist
It can follow a stroke - or another kind of head injury, and while the problem often clears up on its own, it can be another highly upsetting blow for patients often struggling with other disabilities.
To add insult to injury, some doctors dismissed the problem as more likely to be psychiatric in origin than physical.
Now researchers at Oxford University have found that patients with "foreign accent syndrome" seem to share certain characteristics which might explain the problem.
A small number of them all had tiny areas of damage in various parts of the brain.
This might explain the combination of subtle changes to vocal features such as lengthening of syllables, altered pitch or mispronounced sounds which make a patient's pronunciation sound similar to a foreign accent.
Some patients who suffer brain injuries occasionally lose the ability to talk in their native accent - but now scientists may know why.
The condition, called "foreign accent syndrome", affects only a tiny number of patients.
It can mean that a native English speaker can end up sounding more like Spanish or French.
The way we speak is an important part of our personality and influences the way people interact with us
Dr Jennifer Gurd, neurologist
It can follow a stroke - or another kind of head injury, and while the problem often clears up on its own, it can be another highly upsetting blow for patients often struggling with other disabilities.
To add insult to injury, some doctors dismissed the problem as more likely to be psychiatric in origin than physical.
Now researchers at Oxford University have found that patients with "foreign accent syndrome" seem to share certain characteristics which might explain the problem.
A small number of them all had tiny areas of damage in various parts of the brain.
This might explain the combination of subtle changes to vocal features such as lengthening of syllables, altered pitch or mispronounced sounds which make a patient's pronunciation sound similar to a foreign accent.
