An American woman named Karen Butler went to the dentist to remove several teeth and came out speaking a foreign -- slightly Irish -- accent.  She is believed to be suffering from a rare neurological disorder called foreign accent syndrome (FAS).

This complication was first diagnosed in Norway in 1941 when a woman was hit by shrapnel from an air raid in World War II. Since then, there have only been about 100 known cases of FAS.

Neurologist Ted Lowenkopf, director of the Providence Stroke Center in Portland explains that FAS development is “usually the result of a brain injury, which can come from stroke, head trauma or other diseases that can damage brain tissue, like multiple sclerosis.” Lowenkopf is the doctor who diagnosed Butler with FAS. 

According to her recent interview with NPR, a nonprofit radio broadcaster, Butler, born in Bloomington, Illinois, began speaking in an accent about a year and a half ago after she woke up from anesthesia at the dentist’s office. 

“I just went to sleep and I woke up and my mouth was all sore and swollen, and I talked funny.  And the dentist said, ‘You’ll talk normal when the swelling goes down,’” Butler told NPR. 

Unfortunately, while the swelling went down, the accent remained. Neurologists suggest that Butler probably suffered a small stroke when she was under anesthesia. 

While most people suffering from FAS tend to become depressed or stressed out because of their change in accent, Butler claims to actually like her new one.  She told NPR that her new accent has made her more outgoing and is a good conversation starter.  

There have been several similar cases of FAS reported in recent years. For example, British newspaper the Sunday Times published an article in April 2010 about Sarah Colwill, who went from suffering regular migraines to suddenly speaking in a Chinese accent. 

It is believed that FAS usually goes away after a while, though the time it takes for normal speech to come back varies between patients. Unfortunately, this syndrome is still relatively unfamiliar and remains a mystery because of the lack of case studies.

By Park So-eun

(spark@heraldcorp.com)