Perceptual Accent Rating and Attribution in Psychogenic FAS: Some Further Evidence Challenging Whitaker’s Operational Definition

Abstract

A 40-year-old, non-aphasic, right-handed, and polyglot (L1: French, L2: Dutch, and L3: English) woman with a 12-year history of addiction to opiates and psychoactive substances, and clear psychiatric problems, presented with a foreign accent of sudden onset in L1. Speech evolved toward a mostly fluent output, despite a stutter-like behavior and a marked grammatical output disorder. The psychogenic etiology of the accent foreignness was construed based on the patient’s complex medical history and psychodiagnostic, neuropsychological, and neurolinguistic assessments. The presence of a foreign accent was affirmed by a perceptual accent rating and attribution experiment. It is argued that this patient provides additional evidence demonstrating the outdatedness of Whitaker’s (1982) definition of foreign accent syndrome, as only one of the four operational criteria was unequivocally applicable to our patient: her accent foreignness was not only recognized by her relatives and the medical staff but also by a group of native French-speaking laymen. However, our patient defied the three remaining criteria, as central nervous system damage could not conclusively be demonstrated, psychodiagnostic assessment raised the hypothesis of a conversion disorder, and the patient was a polyglot whose newly gained accent was associated with a range of foreign languages, which exceeded the ones she spoke.

Non-Neurogenic Language Disorders: A Preliminary Classification

“…These patients can reasonably imitate a true foreign accent when asked to do so, and, during singing, the accent may disappear, yet they do not improve with automatic speech or speaking or singing in unison. Finally, similar to the other NNLDs, these individuals usually display indifference and lack of frustration toward their language disorder (21).…”

“…Patients with FAS dramatically acquire accents that sound foreign and different from their premorbid accent or from any of their previously spoken languages or dialects (21). For over 110 years, neurologists and psychiatrists have grappled with FAS, ever since Pierre Marie observed the emergence of an Alsatian accent in a Parisian recovering from a left subcortical stroke (22).…”

Psychogenic Foreign Accent Syndrome: A New Case

“…First, the accent diminished whenever there was a psychological breakthrough during the clinical interview (Avbersek and Sisodiya, 2010 ; see also: Keulen et al, 2016 2 ). More specifically these episodes occurred when the patient talked about her relational problems, issues at her former workplace and the fact that she no longer had a job at the moment the interview took place.…”

Functional Foreign Accent Syndrome in suspected Conversion Disorder: A case study

“…It is not the first time that a link between conversationally related stressors and FAS has been attested. In Keulen et al 50 the foreign-sounding accent of their native French-speaking patient disappeared when an emotional subject was introduced. Sudden resolution related to emotionally laden content has previously been argued to indicate psychogenic etiology.…”