Foreign accent syndrome following a closed head injury: Perfusion deficit on single photon emission tomography with normal magnetic resonance imaging

Foreign accent syndrome is a rare speech disorder characterized by the emergence of an apparent foreign accent after an anterior left-hemispheric lesion. We report a case where the patient experienced foreign accent syndrome without other significant neurological deficits, consequent to a minor head injury. Results of single photon emission tomography (SPECT) studies suggest abnormal function of the left dorsolateral inferior frontal gyrus (sparing Broca's area) and the caudate nucleus as the underlying functional/anatomic basis of the syndrome, and acoustic analysis showed prosodic and vowel anomalies that contributed to the listener's perception of a 'foreign accent'.