Transient foreign accent syndrome
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Updated: May 21, 2026

Foreign Accent and Forensic Speaker Identification in Voice Lineups: The Influence of Acoustic Features Based on Prosody
Published on: September 27, 2024
1Neurology Department, UT Southwestern Medical Centre, Austin, Texas, United States. hbhand@mednet.swmed.edu
Abstract:
Foreign accent syndrome (FAS) is a poorly understood and studied syndrome as it is indeed a rare entity. Since its first description in 1907 by French neurologist Pierre Marie involving a patient who presented with an Alsatian accent, there are approximately only 60 cases reported in the literature. The majority of such cases of FAS have been secondary to cerebrovascular accidents. Of the cases in the literature, none report such a transitory nature of FAS. In this particular case, a 55-year-old male presented with a foreign accent. This FAS was triggered by ischemia and was reversed after a seizure, the first reported in the literature.
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