Foreign accent syndrome: an organic disorder?
This paper reports the case of a 32-year-old Dutch speaking woman who presented with foreign accent syndrome (FAS). There are good reasons to believe that the speech disturbance in this patient was of psychogenic origin. This case suggests that attested brain damage is not a prerequisite for a speech disorder to qualify as FAS and that FAS is not necessarily linked to another neurogenic speech disorder. It is argued that FAS is not a syndrome in its own right but only exists in the ears of the beholder. LEARNING OUTCOME: Readers will be able to describe the features that are believed to be typical of the foreign accent syndrome. Readers will be able to summarize the arguments that can be adduced to consider the foreign accent syndrome as an epiphenomenona.
Van Borsel
John
J
ENT Department, Ghent University Hospital, Ghent, Belgium. john.vanborsel@ugent.be
Janssens
Leen
L
Santens
Patrick
P
D000328:Adult; D001184:Articulation Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D001921:Brain / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D019965:Neurocognitive Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D010700:Phonetics; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013577:Syndrome; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D014705:Verbal Behavior