tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2186593343917545414.post2736075007314856082..comments2024-03-10T12:29:30.004-07:00Comments on pediatric neurology: Foreign accent syndrome 2Galen Breningstall, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07170864203251456228noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2186593343917545414.post-27071481692447478862019-05-05T12:11:48.847-07:002019-05-05T12:11:48.847-07:00Michelle Myers is a woman from Arizona who’s never...Michelle Myers is a woman from Arizona who’s never left the country. But although Myers used to speak like any other American, the 45-year-old now talks with a British accent, reports the magazine Smithsonian.<br /><br />Her accent literally changed overnight when Myers went to sleep with a headache and then woke up with a British inflection. Though it might seem comical, her rare language change is actually a medical condition called Foreign Accent Syndrome (FAS).<br /> <br />Myers also suffers from a condition called Ehlers-Danlos, which causes her to have extremely flexible joints. The condition has the potential to cause ruptured blood vessels.<br /><br />According to the University of Texas, FAS often occurs due to stroke or head trauma. Some cases have also been linked to multiple sclerosis, while others don’t have a clear cause.<br /><br />The Texas university mentions that people with the condition typically have changes in the timing or intonation of speech. This gives them the sound of a foreign accent.<br /><br />However, there have been cases of FAS in which a person starts speaking a different language.<br /><br />In 2016, other outlets reported on a 16-year-old woke up from a coma speaking fluent Spanish after a soccer injury. The boy spoke primarily English before, although he knew some Spanish. At the time of the report, the boy’s English was slowly returning.<br /><br />Other FAS cases have occurred all over the world, including those who have switched from British English to French or from Spanish to Hungarian, says the University of Texas.<br /><br />In Myers’s case, she had experienced previous bouts of foreign accent changes before her most recent case. But those lasted only a few weeks, reports Smithsonian. However, she’s had her British accent for several years now.<br /><br />Doctors think it may have been caused by a hemiplegic migraine, states the historical magazine. These migraines are rare but produce symptoms similar to a stroke, which may have influenced Myers’s speech.<br /><br />https://www.foxnews.com/health/arizona-woman-woke-up-with-british-accent<br />Galen Breningstall, MDhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07170864203251456228noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2186593343917545414.post-34155270755697386392018-02-17T22:02:47.088-08:002018-02-17T22:02:47.088-08:00Bhandari HS. Transient foreign accent syndrome. BM...Bhandari HS. Transient foreign accent syndrome. BMJ Case Rep. 2011 Nov 8;2011.<br /><br />Abstract<br />Foreign accent syndrome (FAS) is a poorly understood and studied syndrome as it is indeed a rare entity. Since its first description in 1907 by French neurologist Pierre Marie involving a patient who presented with an Alsatian accent, there are approximately only 60 cases reported in the literature. The majority of such cases of FAS have been secondary to cerebrovascular accidents. Of the cases in the literature, none report such a transitory nature of FAS. In this particular case, a 55-year-old male presented with a foreign accent. This FAS was triggered by ischemia and was reversed after a seizure, the first reported in the literature.<br />______________________________________________________<br /><br />From the article<br /><br />A 55-year-old Texan male, presented with a day history of another accent. His son noted his pronunciation of words as ‘foreign’. He denied issues with writing, reading, or grammar and denied any other systemic symptoms including neurological deficits. His medical history included hypertension, obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome, hypertriglyceridemia and cerebrovascular accidents (CVAs): left frontal infarction (2003) and left parieto-occipital infarction (2007). No medications or allergies were significant to this case. He smoked half pack per day for 20 years and denied illicit drug use. Family history is non-contributory...<br /><br />He followed complex commands and his speech was clear and fluent. Of note, multiple medical personnel noted that the patient sounded as if he had a Cockney accent. The patient did not recognise his accent as foreign. Language showed minor disruptions as alterations of syllable structure. There was no change in tone, rate, or pitch, no sound substitutions, perseveration, or echolalia, no difficulty with speech initiation and there was preservation of syntax. No alexia or agraphia of mono-syllable and multi-syllable words, phrases, or sentences were noted.,,<br /><br />Within minutes of the examination, the patient exhibited right head version followed by a Jacksonian march up his right arm, which was witnessed. This evolved into a tonic-clonic generalised seizure lasting 30 s. Postictal confusion lasted 30 min...<br /><br /> MRI of his brain revealed restricted diffusion in the left parieto-occipital region and in the left middle frontal gyrus...<br /><br />Subsequently, his neurological examination remained similar to the initial examination except that he reverted to his Texan accent. The patient has not been to Britain and does not have relatives/friends there. This was no re-occurrence of his FAS at discharge. He was lost to follow-up. <br /><br />Galen Breningstall, MDhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07170864203251456228noreply@blogger.com