Acoustic and Perceptual Correlates of Foreign Accent Syndrome With Manic Etiology : A Case Study
A Case Study

<jats:p> In foreign accent syndrome (FAS), changes in articulation and prosody cause listeners to perceive the speaker as “foreign-sounding.” Fewer than 100 cases of FAS have been described in the literature; commonly associated with brain damage, only a handful of these have been analyzed with respect to acoustic measures. Acoustic and perceptual measurements were used to compare conversational samples of an individual with mania, first presenting with FAS and again after a return to baseline speech. Acoustic measurements included fundamental frequency, intensity, vowel space, and pause time. Perceptual measures were used to describe prosody, articulation, rate of speech, and intelligibility. Differences in acoustic and perceptual correlates and a negative impact on participation suggest the validity of assigning a diagnosis of FAS associated with mania despite lack of brain damage. </jats:p>