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Non, je ne parle pas français


So, just to let everyone know, one of my favorite shows is Grey’s Anatomy. On one of the episode of this latest season, one of the doctors had a brain tumor. As most people are aware, brain tumors are not easily removed. However, because this a made-up show, this tumor was obviously easily removed. Anyway, when this doctor woke up, something strange happened. This English-speaking doctor woke up speaking in fluent French.  

Like I said, this show is made-up, so I didn’t really think anything of it. This all changed when Coral and I googled weird and rare diseases. I stumbled upon Foreign Accent Syndrome (FAS). Upon further research into this syndrome, I found a more recent case that was reported in 2016. A young soccer player in Atlanta ended up in a coma after being kicked in the head. Once he finally woke up from his coma, he began to speak Spanish fluently. In both the made-up show and this real case, both the kid and the doctor knew little of the now fluent language.

Foreign Accent Syndrome was first described by the French neurologist Pierre Marie in 1907. This rare syndrome is usually caused by damage to the brain. These damages can range from a stroke, brain hemorrhaging, head trauma, or blunt or sharp trauma to the skull that cause concussions. Another damage to the brain that has led to foreign accent syndrome is multiple sclerosis. Most sufferers of this syndrome experience changes in tone of speech, changes in the movement of one’s tongue and jaw activity while speaking, the use of words not common in their native language, and also sentence distortion. These symptoms have fascinated doctors as patients will wake up speaking with a different accent or even speaking another language. 

As this syndrome is so rare, doctors really do not have a clear explanation of how or why this happens to patients.  For sufferers, patients can go to speech therapy or counseling to get back to their native tongue. Dr. Karen Croot stated that “speech is one of the most complicated things we do”. She went on to explain there are a lot of motor areas in the brain that are involved in speech and therefore, if one of those parts in our brains is damaged, it could cause all sorts of things to go wrong.

Studies have been conducted and scientists have noticed sufferers who acquired FAS through having a stroke, the left-hemisphere Broca’s area, pre-motor and motor areas, and the basal ganglia of the brain are the damaged areas. However, other cases have reported that damage is in right-hemisphere, which is known to have a key role in speech prosody.

Like I stated previously, there is still more research that is needed to be conducted to determine exactly what is happening in the brain and exactly why. So, my advice for y’all is to live a healthy life and avoid brain injuries at all times unless you want to wake up with a cool accent.



Sources: http://leader.pubs.asha.org/article.aspx?articleid=2278208 https://www.utdallas.edu/research/FAS/                                          http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/24/health/teen-spanish-new-language-trnd/index.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_accent_syndrome#History                           http://syndrome.org/foreign-accent-syndrome/

Comments

  1. JessyNovember 16, 2017 at 12:26 PM

    I heard about this awhile ago and it is truly incredible, I wonder if there is a reason for the language that the person is suddenly fluent in, if they think in their native language, is their writing also in the foreign language. So many questions and I don't know if their will ever be a clear cut answer on this one since it is so bizarre and seems to have no real basis as to the why and how.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. UnknownNovember 17, 2017 at 5:29 PM

      That was my first go to idea.
      English was my first language and Spanish I am not fluent, so when I try to talk in Spanish I usually think of the phrase in my head in English then translate it in my head and let the words out. As you have more practice sometimes the words come out automatically but the language I hear in my head when someone in another language talks to me is still English.
      Perhaps it may be something from youth as well. Since, most of our development of language happens when we are young it is encoded a different way. The trauma maybe breaks this or causes some disruption and it confuses the languages.

      I actually heard of this story because my nephew loves soccer and may have herd about it through those he hangs out with.

      Delete
  2. Samson NdukweNovember 17, 2017 at 7:16 AM

    I have heard about FAS (did not know the medical term) in the past and I find it to be quite interesting. I know that different regions of the brain control different functions so it makes sense that being kicked in the region of the brain that controls speech (Broca's area) would cause this rare disease. However, I find it odd that experiencing something as common as a stroke could cause FAS to onset. Interesting post! I mean it this time lol.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Student Dr. ReichertNovember 17, 2017 at 8:26 AM

    Wow this is super interesting! I have never heard of this, and like you said, if I saw it on Grey's Anatomy I would assume it was fiction. Thank you for doing some detective work and finding out it is real because this is cool. Honestly, as I read your post, I briefly thought, "Man I want to get hit in the head and go into a coma, so I can wake up fluent in another language" (preferably mandarin Chinese or Arabic). In all seriousness though, it would be interesting if scientists could really pinpoint what exactly is going on in the brain of patients with this phenomenon. I am sure it is only a matter of time as brain imaging and testing gets more and more advanced.

    ReplyDelete
  4. UnknownNovember 17, 2017 at 4:58 PM

    First of all I would like to thank you for mentioning my name in your blog. Second of all, I find this really interesting. I have heard of this happening in people when they develop certain diseases that come with old age. Usually it is the language that they were raised speaking before they started to speak English. I would love to be able to speak french so maybe if I ever have a traumatic event, something like this could happen to me!

    ReplyDelete
  5. UnknownNovember 17, 2017 at 8:11 PM

    I always enjoy your blog posts! I have heard about this before, but only in movies. I did not know it was a real thing! Like everyone else on this blog, I too, would like to wake up with a new language! I'm sure this is only experienced when the brain is attacked in the language area, but I wonder if this is one of those things that is a right place right time kind of deal.

    ReplyDelete
  6. UnknownNovember 17, 2017 at 9:53 PM

    I've heard about this before but I didn't know it was real. I think it was a Youtube video of a guy coming out of a coma. I could have sworn it was completely fake, but apparently it may have been real. Another great post Caitlyn!

    ReplyDelete
  7. UnknownNovember 27, 2017 at 1:10 PM

    My first reaction was "no f**king way". I'm going to stick with that for the time being.

    ReplyDelete

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