How does science explain this

I was watching an interview between Richard Hammond and Stirling Moss the other night. Very moving portrayal, discussing each other recovery from Brain injuries. One bit in Particular I thought interesting, When Stirling came out of his coma he could speak fluent French, he had not had the ability before or after, how does science explain that.

The mind is a very complex place, most of which we do not understand, but science is quite prepered to sweep aside anything different to the norm because they do not understand it.

to try and be scientific...i know..me being scientific. anyway..maybe he learnt french at school but forgot it.

It is very interesting.

I've heard of this before and have tried looking it up on the internet. A report says that although it's called 'foreign language syndrome the people don't actually talk a different language but have the accent of a different languge.

Another report that kept coming up was about a Croation girl of 13 who woke from a 24 hour coma and spoke fluent German. She had recently been taking German lessons, reading books and watching videos on the language but could not speak it fluently. After the coma she couldn't speak Croation but could understand people speaking it.

Her parents couldn't understand how she could suddenly speak German fluently.
But with her having studied, if only for a brief time, it puts a little slant on the story. Strange though to struggle with a langauge then speak it fluently, yet not the language you was born with.

I thought I would have gotten more info off the net as I have heard several of these stories over the news via the news and papers.

It happens in past life regression too

i cant think of how it could have happened.......

ive heard of people who have had brain injuries and had a complete personality change-like people who are normally very calm then starting to have anger issues, or someone liking things they never liked before...ive even heard a story about someone who had a stroke and then became gay.

but with this, how can knowledge appear that shouldnt be there? is it possible for someone to know a little bit of a language, and all of a sudden know it fluently.

with the girl who was able to speak fluent german, she was learning it before, so i imagine a lot of it was actually in the brain before, its just maybe something changed to let this information out.....but it would depend how much she learned before.

i dont know this, but it sounds like in the first example, stirling did not know how to speak french and presumably never learned it. i dont know whether he did french at school like i did, but forgot it, but even then, we never learned enough to be fluent.

Memory loss can arise from brain injury, can't it? In this case the knowledge he could already speak French

No TD, his wife bore witness he could speak very little French before hand, relying on her to do all the talking.

No TD, his wife bore witness he could speak very little French before hand, relying on her to do all the talking.

Oh right. Seems he picked up more French than he realised from his wife then

I think that is complete cobblers.

What would 'Science' ( I wonder who that actually is- some sort of sect by the sound of it?) gain out of sweeping anything extraordinary (allegedly) under the carpet?

I have heard 'Science' being called many names before, including 'arrogant'...yet not arrogant enough to wanting to find the answers to everything?

Why not actually do some research on what 'Science' has to say on the matter?
I didn't watch the show.

Didn't the show feature a scientific approach to it? We're only getting anecdotal here.

I have just googled: ''People speaking a foreign language after a coma explained '' and got:

5,560,000 results within the first page I have found:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_accent_syndrome

http://news.discovery.com/human/coma-croat...irl-german.html

And this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphasia



By the way, if I ever fall ill, into a coma and come back round again speaking fluent French only, don't be too surprised
But boy would I be pi$$ed off about wasting all those years trying to master the Queen's English!

Don't believe evrything you see on TV, these kind of sensationalised stories make for good ratings....

All that has come across so far is I don't know so lets attack the the idea. Stirling Moss has nothing to gain from his admission. The program was very moving, there was no sensationalism involved. So why could he speak fluent french, the idea that he gained more knowledge of french then he realised from his wife is a none starter, he was "fluent".

Allegedly.

I don't believe the story as described in the program. Did they have any footage of him speaking french, and can he speak french today?

I think the word "cobblers" meant you didn't beleive Rusty.

I don't think cameras would be aloud in a intensive care suite and no he lost that ability, when he did not say.

Because there is no explanation, means the science fraternity attack the idea. Yet we have a credible person with no reason to exaggerate, he's already famous.

What is it you are getting at ganda?

Who has attacked the idea?

Science needs evidence. A testimonial or two isn't enough to confirm science-fact.

Ganda, how would you explain it?

Rather then take on board that there could be something to the story, and that we do not fully understand the Brain and it's workings, the main ideas put forward were those of trying to rationalize the concept with therioes like he could have learnt French at a earlier point in his life and forgotten it or picked up more from his wife then he realised. These sort of answers do not point to science wanting to learn, it merely shows that what it does not understand or cannot explain must be false. Sorry TD not getting at you there

I agree that it was not screwed down as "science" likes, there is no repeatable evidence. But while that may be the case, what we have is a sober minded person with no need of achieving notability, having quite extraordinary story. What is the outcome, it must be false, we do not understand it.

Lets look at one of the links Fwench supplied:

http://news.discovery.com/human/coma-croat...irl-german.html

Quite a sweeping statement considering the evidence was there, the girl was speaking German, that is quite arrogant.

One further quote from the artical:

"

So why when something like this crops up is it instantly brushed aside as being impossible.


This sums up my feelings on the matter really.

I have my ideas, but they are probably not for this thread.

Well, I'm no scientist but I'd be willing to bet my last penny that it wasn't through divination or any superpower....

Shouldn't we explore and rule out other rational explanations before jumping to conclussions?

I have my ideas, but they are probably not for this thread.

I'm not sure they'll be a better thread to explain your theory.