Chances are you’ve never heard of the medical condition I will be discussing in this article. You will probably never hear of it again, either. Foreign Accent Syndrome (yes, this is a real medical condition) is a rare result from a brain injury or stroke.
Foreign accent syndrome sufferers wake up or ‘come to’ from their injury/stroke with distorted speech.
As patients regain their command of language, they seem to have a foreign accent. So, the condition’s name is based on those who perceive the stroke/injury victim’s speech. Unfortunately, people unfamiliar with the condition (most of us) often assume the accent is an act. Rejection from friends and family are typical with FAS sufferers. However, it is a legitimate syndrome that has only around fifty known cases to date.
One present-day case of foreign accent syndrome is that of Tiffany Roberts Noell. Tiffany is an American radio announcer who suffered from a debilitating stroke that left her with temporary paralysis on the right side of her body and the inability to speak normally.
In her Discovery Channel interview she described herself immediately after the stroke as sounding like, “a very odd Forest Gump.” Thankfully, Noell fully recovered, but was left with a permanent high pitched British accent. Many of her friendships fell apart because they doubted her sincerity. The rarity of her condition even left her neurologist baffled.
It wasn’t until four years later, after living in depression and isolation, that she received some validation. A friend e-mailed her an article about foreign accent syndrome. She had never heard of it before. Noell’s symptoms fit the description.
“I sat at my computer sobbing for two hours because finally I was being validated as a sane human being by reading that article,” said Noell.
Noell took the article to communications expert Jack Ryalls who administered a test to see if her case was legitimate. She tested positive as a sufferer of foreign accent syndrome. Noell learned that sometimes victims of strokes uncover repressed speech patterns that we don’t use. In this case, it was a British accent. It is not, however, the result of some hidden desire to speak differently.
Although the information from Ryalls solved some of the mystery, people like Noell still struggle finding acceptance with their new accents. FAS is extremely stressful to deal with since many simply think that it isn’t real, or that it’s a desperate cry for attention. Scientific evidence shows that it is real. An Oxford University study found a correlation in FAS patients in that the same part of the brain had been damaged. This study also lends itself to the legitimacy of the condition.
So, if a friend of yours falls down a flight of stairs, hits his head and comes out of the hospital sounding like a Russian immigrant, be understanding.
For more information on this fascinating condition, do a search for ‘foreign accent syndrome’ on YouTube.com to see the video of Noell telling the story in her own words.
Brent Paxton is a junior international studies and political science double major. He can be reached for comment at [email protected].
