This Woman Woke Up With a British Accent - Article Health

An Arizona woman is making headlines for a condition that sounds too absurd to be true.

Michelle Myers, a mother of seven from Buckeye, told ABC 15 that on several occasions, she's gone to bed with a pounding headache and awoken sounding totally different. The first time it happened, she woke up with an Irish accent. The second time, she sounded Australian. And two years ago, she woke up with a British accent—and hasn't been able to shake it.

"I feel like a different person," Myers told ABC 15 of watching a video of her old voice. "The person I am now has been through so much compared to this person."

What is foreign accent syndrome?
Just as the name suggests, foreign accent syndrome (FAS) is a speech disorder that makes the sufferer sound like she has an accent from another country, according to the University of Texas Dallas (UT). The first known case was observed in 1907, when a Parisian man developed an Alsatian accent after suffering a stroke, the Atlantic reports. Since then, only about 100 people have been diagnosed with the unusual condition, according to the Mayo Clinic.

What causes foreign accent syndrome?
Research suggests that most cases of FAS result from damage to the brain, though some patients may develop the condition due to psychological factors. Even if brain damage is to blame, however, researchers aren't totally sure how and why it results in FAS.

Is there a treatment for foreign accent syndrome?
While some patients do regain their normal speech patterns, either spontaneously or as other health problems are treated, FAS has proved difficult to reverse. UT attempted to treat a patient who had developed a Swedish accent by using accent reduction techniques meant to reshape the way she pronounced certain vowels and consonants, for example, but they were ultimately unsuccessful.


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