Acquired German Accent: A Functional Neural Systems Approach to Foreign Accent Syndrome

Foreign Accent Syndrome (FAS) is often acquired subsequent to stroke or traumatic brain injury, where the patient initially experiences muteness, aphasia, or apraxia, and then FAS during recovery and often before his/her normal speech pattern returns. Common areas for brain lesions in FAS are found around the left inferior frontal region, but lesion location varies among patients with this syndrome. Moreover, it appears that FAS may require combined lesions, with the respective lesion locations or lesion pattern relevant to the regional accent acquired. This case study presents the findings from a patient with an acquired and distinctly German accent following combined lesion of the left inferior frontal region and the pons. Although FAS has been described following a cerebellar lesion, the authors were not able to locate prior evidence in the literature of onset of FAS involving pontine cerebrovascular accident.