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Science

Head Injury Induces Foreign Accent Syndrome 115

Posted by michael from the weird-science dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Researchers have identified a rare disorder in which people, usually who have suffered a brain injury, find themselves speaking with a foreign accent. As reported by Science Blog, a Florida woman found herself speaking with a British accident after a stroke left her partially paralyzed. Fewer than 20 cases have been reported since 1919."
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Head Injury Induces Foreign Accent Syndrome More

Head Injury Induces Foreign Accent Syndrome

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  • Oh no... (Score:1, Funny)

    by ERJ ( 600451 )
    Oh, so many jokes...which to choose from...

    And which foreign people to insult?

    • Re:Oh no... (Score:2, Funny)

      by sigxcpu ( 456479 )
      (I know, this IS childish but....)

      "Fewer than 20 cases have been reported since 1919."
      -What do you mean by `fewer then 20`?
      I have seen a whole island with millions of them ...

  • ...this sounds like a bad sitcom plot.

  • Aha (Score:2)

    by pbox ( 146337 )
    So all I gotta do is bang my head to loose my accent.

    It would be helpful to know which way to bang it to get the midwestern one instead of the hillbilly...

  • Bloody hell! (Score:4, Funny)

    by Txiasaeia ( 581598 ) on Tuesday November 18, 2003 @08:35PM (#7507500)
    "... a Florida woman found herself speaking with a British accident..."

    Good day, old sport! Mind if I play through your auto accident? Don't mind the tea on your bonnet; I've invited me mum to watch.

  • she should make a t-shirt (Score:5, Funny)

    by shweazel ( 583363 ) on Tuesday November 18, 2003 @08:40PM (#7507523)
    "I had a stroke and all I got was this bloody accent"

  • heh (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I played lots of American football when I was younger. That must be why I am 'fluent in prick' as my boss likes to say.
  • ...that explains the whole Graham Norton thing.
  • I can partly understand what she's going through. Having grown up surrounded by 2 or more languages (depending on the time period), My accent's all over the place. I find myself adjusting my accent based on who I'm talking to.
    ..which gets really screwy when there are people with different accents in the same conversation. There's nothing more weird to the ear than starting a sentence with an australian accent and ending it with an americanized one.

    Maybe I could be the subject of research too! I can see it

    • I have the same problem as you do. However when Im around only Americans, some people seem to think I still speak with an accent, though they cannot place from where.

      Some girl even refused to believe I was from the USA, and demanded to know where I was really from despite the fact that the rest of the group could not hear an accent in my speech.
      • :) I've had that same problem (people asking me where I'm from). Upstate New York doesn't seem to sit well with most people who bother to ask the question. Most don't think I spek with an accent, but around some people I slip in to one. I also notice that as I get turned on, I slip in to an accent too.. I really don't understand it, but the person I was with commented on it.. I can usually get OUT of an accent that I've slipped in to just by thinking about it, but it wouldn't go away that time.

        Weird

      • Re:Same "problem" (Score:4, Funny)

        by fuzzybunny ( 112938 ) on Wednesday November 19, 2003 @05:06AM (#7509536) Homepage Journal

        Some girl even refused to believe I was from the USA, and demanded to know where I was really from

        She was FLIRTING with you, you moroon.

  • All my accent are belong to 1337 (Score:5, Funny)

    by orthogonal ( 588627 ) on Tuesday November 18, 2003 @08:44PM (#7507555) Journal
    1 b4n63d my h34d 0n 4 c0mpu73r 4nd n0w 4|| my 4cc3n7 4r3 Pwn3d |1k3 7h15.
  • Fewer than 20 cases have been reported since 1919.

    I'll bet you this "syndrome" gets popular. 20 cases in 80 years. You'll probably meet someone who claims to have it by 2006. We'll have FAS support groups and docu-dramas. Eventually some sort of new drug treatment will appear...

  • How politically incorrect (Score:5, Funny)

    by thelenm ( 213782 ) <(mthelen) (at) (gmail.com)> on Tuesday November 18, 2003 @08:50PM (#7507596) Homepage Journal
    What a politically incorrect premise:

    Woman Suffers Brain Injury, Now Speaks With British Accent

    But who are we to argue with science? ;-)

  • Nothing very strange about this. (Score:3, Funny)

    by deek ( 22697 ) * on Tuesday November 18, 2003 @10:20PM (#7508100) Homepage Journal

    It just seems like an example of phrenology [triggur.org] at work. Now maybe those naysayers, who have cast dispersions at this science, will see the error of their ways.


    • > It just seems like an example of phrenology at work. Now maybe those naysayers, who have cast dispersions at this science, will see the error of their ways.

      But the medical treatment is simple enough: just take the patient by the body shop and have them pop the dents out of his head.

    • **Pfft** Of course you'd say that...you have the brainpan of a stagecoach tilter!

  • Madonna (Score:4, Funny)

    by krs-one ( 470715 ) <<moc.smuroflgnepo> <ta> <civ>> on Tuesday November 18, 2003 @10:34PM (#7508172) Homepage Journal
    I wonder if Madonna had this, when she married her British husband and all of a sudden thought she was English as well.

    -Vic
    • I'd say that's a reverse syndrome:

      Fake Foreign Identity Syndrome
      FFIS == thinking you're from somewhere else than you really are.

      Come to think of it, I know of another case. remember that "australian" actor who was in JAG. He was actually British. But then, he had the accent as well... Maybe he suffered from FFIS and FAS? ;)
      I wonder how many other actors have yet another reason to check into a clinic. :)

    • No, she just sucks.
    • "she was English as well"

      She thought she was a singer, writer, artist, dancer and actor first, so that's not our fault.

    • Well, they did say that bangs on the head can cause this, and Madonna has taken more than her share of bangs...

    • Does anyone else find it rather... odd that after living in the UK for a few years, she then releases a song...

      I live the American Life.
      I live the American dream.

      Not exactly doing eith country any favours, is she?

      Tiggs

  • Aha! (Score:1, Flamebait)

    by TheSHAD0W ( 258774 )
    I'll bet one of England's kings, several hundred years ago, had a stroke and started speaking that way; then the nobles decided it was in fashion and imitated it, then the populace began talking that way... No wonder they all talk funny. ;-)

  • Glossalalia (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Captain Splendid ( 673276 )
    Am I the only who thinks the only reason this story is Slashdot-worthy is because this was central to the plot of a Neal Stephenson book?

  • BBC: 'Foreign accent syndrome' explained (Score:4, Informative)

    by $exyNerdie ( 683214 ) on Tuesday November 18, 2003 @11:38PM (#7508458) Homepage Journal

    It is explained here:
    'Foreign accent syndrome' explained [bbc.co.uk]

  • Understanding 'Foreign Accent Syndrome' (Score:4, Informative)

    by $exyNerdie ( 683214 ) on Tuesday November 18, 2003 @11:43PM (#7508478) Homepage Journal


    Understanding 'Foreign Accent Syndrome' [ox.ac.uk]

    Download a sample of a patient's speech before (1.3MB) [ox.ac.uk] and after (1.1MB) [ox.ac.uk] acquiring the syndrome.

    Copy and paste of the entire text in case of /.ing:

    Understanding 'Foreign Accent Syndrome'

    News
    3 October 2002
    Oxford neuropsychologists have located some very small lesions in the brain which can lead to a rare speech disorder known as Foreign Accent Syndrome. This condition, which is usually the result of a stroke or head injury, makes patients change their pronunciation to sound like non-native speakers.

    The finding is a further piece in the puzzle which Oxford scientists are trying to solve. Teamwork between Dr Jennifer Gurd at Oxford University's Department of Clinical Neurology and phonetician Dr John Coleman has already led to more precise analyses of the rare symptom which has been a mystery to physicians for a long time.

    Cases of Foreign Accent Syndrome differ with respect to both the cause and the nature of the new accent, which could for example be like Spanish or Dutch in a native speaker of English. The syndrome can arise after a stroke or other brain injury, including closed head injury as might happen in a road traffic accident. The kind of accent a patient develops is not dependent on any knowledge of a particular foreign language. It is rather the combination of certain changed features such as lengthening of syllables, altered pitch, or mispronouned sounds, which make a patient's pronunciation sound similar to a particular foreign accent.

    Dr Gurd said: 'The way we speak is an important part of our personality and influences the way people interact with us. It is understandably quite traumatic for patients to find that their accent has changed. We are keen to help patients on their road to recovery..

    'Patients derive some comfort from knowing more about the causes of their rare condition and many are happy to help scientists to understand better the nature of the brain and its role in human accents.'

    Patients who suffer from Foreign Accent Syndrome often get better as the brain heals or other parts of the brain take over the work of the damaged areas. However patients normally need speech therapy to help speed up the healing process and to make sure that any residual speech defects are kept to a minimum.

    Dr Gurd added: 'The time-course and pattern of recovery varies depending on the cause of the brain damage. As we investigate new cases, a clearer picture of the syndrome will emerge. This will enable us to help more people in the future. We would welcome further referrals of patients with Foreign Accent Syndrome.'

    Download a sample of a patient's speech before (1.3MB) and after (1.1MB) acquiring the syndrome.

    For further information please contact the press office on 01865 280528.

    Notes to editors:

    The first case of Foreign Accent Syndrome was reported in 1941 from Norway, where a young Norwegian woman suffered shrapnel injuries to the brain during an air raid. Initially she had severe language problems from which she eventually recovered but she was left with what sounded like a strong German accent, and was ostracized by her community.
    The Neuropsychology Centre is part of the department of Clinical Neurology at the University of Oxford. Its cross-disciplinary research seeks to understand the normal cognitive functions of the brain and mind and investigates how these processes break down, change and recover following brain damage.
    The Phonetics Laboratory, established in 1980, conducts research in speech physiology and acoustics, as well as performing psycholinguistic experiments on speech and phonological competence. Its resources are used by linguists, psychologists and neurologists.
    A Stroke Prevention Research Unit, led by Dr Pete
    • Thank you, that's much clearer.

      The article points out that it only _sounds_ like a foreign accent, because some feature is changed (e.g. vowel length). It's not actually a particular foreign accent.

      The two samples, to an untrained American ear, both sound quite similar; they're both "British" accents. (I'm not sure which accent it is; the original sounds a lot like Received pronunciation but I'm not an expert.)

      The syndrome I'd like to combat is the one associated with going to Renaissance festivals whi
      • Before, it sounded like BBC English (somewhere in the posh areas around Oxfordshire and the western Home Counties - I couldn't place it exactly, I haven't lived there for several years), and After from somewhere between Edinburgh and Glasgow.

        I now live in the North-West, and she definately isn't from there :)
  • ...people who can do really good accents tell jokes that keep getting more and more stupid...
  • I hit my head very hard at the age 3. Had to go to the emergency room. My speech has always been rather unintelligable to the people around me, and those who don't know me often ask about my "accent". I doubt there's a connection though.

  • Obligatory Simpsons (Score:4, Funny)

    by cryptor3 ( 572787 ) on Wednesday November 19, 2003 @12:47AM (#7508741) Journal
    Heya moe... why you no talka wit-a you accent-a no more? And now we know; it's because of a whack to the head. Mamma Mia!

  • Could be worse (Score:4, Funny)

    by fuzzybunny ( 112938 ) on Wednesday November 19, 2003 @03:19AM (#7509226) Homepage Journal

    She-a cuoold hefe-a heet her heed und be-a telkeeng veet a svedeesh eccent. Bork bork bork!
  • that's why articles redactors should use the preview feature and re-read whatever they have written...

    a Florida woman found herself speaking with a British accident

  • no such thing as a british accent (Score:5, Informative)

    by tiled_rainbows ( 686195 ) on Wednesday November 19, 2003 @05:28AM (#7509580) Homepage Journal
    Honestly, I'm not being a pedant here (well, maybe a bit), but there is no such thing as a British accent.

    There are, however, a great variety of English, Welsh, and Scottish Accents.

    The variation between them is at least as great as between the "Standard" (ie Southern Middle-Class) English accent and many American Accents.

    As a Londoner, when I went to Glasgow, I couldn't understand a bloody word that anyone was saying, but we were both speaking with "British" accents.
    • Don't worry, if you live in the Northeast USA and go down to Louisiana or Southern Texas you'll be pretty confused also.
      • Don't worry, if you live in the Northeast USA and go down to Louisiana or Southern Texas you'll be pretty confused also.

        I didn't find LA to be too bad, but I did used to work with a PBX operator from Texas who was a dead ringer for Boomhauer [earthlink.net]. (no, they're not making it up!).
    • "As a Londoner, when I went to Glasgow, I couldn't understand a bloody word that anyone was saying, but we were both speaking with "British" accents."

      Glaswegian is a dialect, and one of the more insanely divergent ones in the UK, although there are areas of Stoke where Arabic words have become part of the lexicon due to slaves being brought back during the crusades.

      The thing is that it may have been an 'impression' of an English accent, which would tend to place it around Sussex...if the inspiration for
  • Maybe she's just a Monty Python fan?

  • One of my college roomates was Austrailian, but he'd been in the states since he was 11 so he had lost his Aussie accent. But when he got drunk, his accent came back. His brother use to get high all the time but being stoned didn't have the same affect (or his brother lost his accent at an earlier age and couldn't recover it.)
  • I am going to go ahead and call "B.S." It would seem to me, and I am by no means a medical doctor, that if you had a brain injury, you would not suddenly speak in a different accent. I would think maybe these people have a prior history of other psychological issues, like delusions, multiple personality disorder, etc. Or maybe they just fantasize about being from England, then they hit their head, and really do think they are English.

    "Me fail English? That's unpossible!"
    • well you use your brain to speak. so some damage to the part that makes you talk... could make you talk diffrent. millions of people have had strokes in the last 100 years, out of every one of them its not SO unlikely that out of the people that have strokes that make your way of talking change that one or two would end up talking in a way that sounds sort of like an accent.
      • Dude, I did not imply that it does not happen. We do not know how the brain completely works, nor will we ever. What I am saying is that we don't really know what kind of medical/psychological history these people have. If you forget how you normally talk, how would you remember how other people talk? This is the brain we are speaking of, so I do not know the answer to that question. I know you can very easily bump your head and wake up not knowing you are married, how to ride a bike, what have you, but if
    • It think it's psychological. If you have a head injury, wierd things can happen. I had a high school teacher who was thrown from a horse. After that, she became a buddhist and believes that in a past life she was alexander the greats gay lover. I think from the fact that there have only been 20 cases reported in the last 80 years the accent thing is just something random like this. I hardly think it desrves it's own name.

  • I once had a british accent... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Wubby ( 56755 ) on Wednesday November 19, 2003 @09:26AM (#7510347) Homepage Journal
    I once had a british accent for about a day when I had fallen asleep listing to the radio broadcasts of "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" on tape. The player had auto side switching, so I just kept listening to the same two sides over and over for about 9 hours of sleep.

    I actually tried very hard that day to NOT speak with the accent, but found I couldn't. By that evening it was over nd I was normal again (well, as much as I was before).

    I don't think there is any mystery in it. It's likely the same as moving to an area with a different local accent and eventually you start speaking with one. I just happen to have the accelerated course.

    Take it for what it's worth.
    • That happened to me once, too. I was doing an act with a friend where we were spoofing Father Guido Sarducci, and I got myself stuck in the fake-Italian accent for about an hour. I literally could not stop.
    • My wife does this. At first I thought she was trying to be funny or pretentious, but she really can't help it and I worry that someone is going to be offended.

      What happens is that if she is talking to someone with a distinct accent for a while, she starts imitating the accent. It happened while we were in Paris, it's happened when we visited with some friends from Australia and other friends from Japan. It also happens when her brother visits from Iowa (we're in Alabama). It also happened when we watch
  • I think that all british - derived peoples of the world are actually born with the default british accent and as they grow up they pick up the local accent. When she banged her head she defaulted back to british. It won't be long, maybe a few reboots before her prefs go back American.
  • What the hell is a British accident? Prince Charles? The Spice Girls?

  • wow. (Score:1)

    by ailaG ( 687084 )
    not even ONE reference to UF? well, here's one! :) go pitr..

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