title: Loss of regional accent after damage to the speech production network.
abstract: Lesion-symptom mapping studies reveal that selective damage to one or more components of the speech production network can be associated with foreign accent syndrome, changes in regional accent (e.g., from Parisian accent to Alsatian accent), stronger regional accent, or re-emergence of a previously learned and dormant regional accent. Here, we report loss of regional accent after rapidly regressive Broca's aphasia in three Argentinean patients who had suffered unilateral or bilateral focal lesions in components of the speech production network. All patients were monolingual speakers with three different native Spanish accents (Cordobés or central, Guaranítico or northeast, and Bonaerense). Samples of speech production from the patient with native Córdoba accent were compared with previous recordings of his voice, whereas data from the patient with native Guaranítico accent were compared with speech samples from one healthy control matched for age, gender, and native accent. Speech samples from the patient with native Buenos Aires's accent were compared with data obtained from four healthy control subjects with the same accent. Analysis of speech production revealed discrete slowing in speech rate, inappropriate long pauses, and monotonous intonation. Phonemic production remained similar to those of healthy Spanish speakers, but phonetic variants peculiar to each accent (e.g., intervocalic aspiration of /s/ in Córdoba accent) were absent. While basic normal prosodic features of Spanish prosody were preserved, features intrinsic to melody of certain geographical areas (e.g., rising end F0 excursion in declarative sentences intoned with Córdoba accent) were absent. All patients were also unable to produce sentences with different emotional prosody. Brain imaging disclosed focal left hemisphere lesions involving the middle part of the motor cortex, the post-central cortex, the posterior inferior and/or middle frontal cortices, insula, anterior putamen and supplementary motor area. Our findings suggest that lesions affecting the middle part of the left motor cortex and other components of the speech production network disrupt neural processes involved in the production of regional accent features.
authors.affiliation: Cognitive Neurology and Aphasia Unit and Cathedra Foundation Morera and Vallejo of Aphasia, Centro de Investigaciones Médico-Sanitarias, University of Malaga Malaga, Spain.
authors.forename: Marcelo L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Berthier
authors.affiliation: Cognitive Neurology and Aphasia Unit and Cathedra Foundation Morera and Vallejo of Aphasia, Centro de Investigaciones Médico-Sanitarias, University of Malaga Malaga, Spain ; Department of Psychobiology and Methodology of Behavioural Sciences, Faculty of Psychology, University of Malaga Malaga, Spain.
authors.forename: Guadalupe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Dávila
authors.affiliation: Cognitive Neurology and Aphasia Unit and Cathedra Foundation Morera and Vallejo of Aphasia, Centro de Investigaciones Médico-Sanitarias, University of Malaga Malaga, Spain ; Department of Spanish Language I, University of Malaga Malaga, Spain.
authors.forename: Ignacio
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Moreno-Torres
authors.affiliation: Cognitive Neurology and Aphasia Unit and Cathedra Foundation Morera and Vallejo of Aphasia, Centro de Investigaciones Médico-Sanitarias, University of Malaga Malaga, Spain.
authors.forename: Álvaro
authors.initials: Á
authors.lastname: Beltrán-Corbellini
authors.affiliation: Cognitive Neurology and Aphasia Unit and Cathedra Foundation Morera and Vallejo of Aphasia, Centro de Investigaciones Médico-Sanitarias, University of Malaga Malaga, Spain.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Santana-Moreno
authors.affiliation: Molecular Imaging Unit, Centro de Investigaciones Médico-Sanitarias, General Foundation of the University of Malaga Malaga, Spain.
authors.forename: Núria
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Roé-Vellvé
authors.affiliation: Molecular Imaging Unit, Centro de Investigaciones Médico-Sanitarias, General Foundation of the University of Malaga Malaga, Spain ; Department of Applied Mathematics, Superior Technical School of Engineering in Informatics, University of Malaga Malaga, Spain.
authors.forename: Karl
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Thurnhofer-Hemsi
authors.affiliation: Cognitive Neurology and Aphasia Unit and Cathedra Foundation Morera and Vallejo of Aphasia, Centro de Investigaciones Médico-Sanitarias, University of Malaga Malaga, Spain.
authors.forename: María José
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Torres-Prioris
authors.affiliation: Centro de Investigaciones en Antropología Filosófica y Cultural, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: María Ignacia
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: Massone
authors.affiliation: Cognitive Neurology and Aphasia Unit and Cathedra Foundation Morera and Vallejo of Aphasia, Centro de Investigaciones Médico-Sanitarias, University of Malaga Malaga, Spain.
authors.forename: Rafael
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ruiz-Cruces
keywords: foreign accent; motor speech disorder; regional accent; speech production; stroke