An Unusual Case of Foreign Accent Syndrome Following TBI

A teenage boy spent three days in a coma after a severe kick to the head while playing goalie in a soccer match. He then woke up speaking Spanish—seemingly fluently—although his primary language is English. Rueben Nsemoh made global headlines recently for this unusual, but not singular, switch in language function after a traumatic brain injury (TBI).  Nsemoh previously learned a few Spanish phrases from teammates and his brother, who studied in Spain. So he heard a lot of the language, but never really spoke it until after the TBI. Most of the numerous news outlets and publications that covered the story attribute the transformation in language function to a rare disorder called foreign accent syndrome. One of those news outlets was CNN, which previously interviewed Karen Croot about another case of this strange syndrome. A cognitive neuropsychologist in Australia who specializes in spoken language disorders, Croot described the syndrome this way: “It’s an impairment of motor control. Speech is one of the most complicated things we do, and there are a lot of brain centers involved in coordinating a lot of moving parts. If one or more of them are damaged, that can affect the timing, melody and tension of their speech.” Another article on Nsemoh—this one from “Science Alert”—goes deeper into his symptoms. For example, as his English returns, he’s losing some of his Spanish. The story compares the syndrome to a type of aphasia and explains...
Source: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Press Releases - Category: Speech Therapy Authors: Tags: News Speech-Language Pathology Aphasia Language Disorders Traumatic Brain Injury Source Type: blogs