14 DAY TRIAL // A recent report in the British Medical Journal details the case of a woman who suffered a stroke and, as a result, ended up sending a fairly confusing and pretty much unintelligible text message to her son.
Specialists say that the 61-year-old woman, whose identity is yet to be made public, is the fourth patient to have until now been reported to be unable to send a coherent text message as a result of a stroke.
Hence, Dr. Samer Al-Hadidi with the Hurley Medical Center in Michigan, US, and colleagues argue that such events, which they refer to as instances of dystextia, should be included on the list of stroke symptoms.
The specialists explain that, as shown by several investigations, several brain regions are activated when your average Joe or Jane decides to send a text message.
These regions help make sure that the message is properly put together and that the thumbs type the planned content and not some mumbo-jumbo. Hence, unintelligible messages can serve as an indicator of abnormal brain activity.
Mind you, slurred speech has for some time now been recognized as a stroke symptom. Unintelligible messages are argued to be the modern-day equivalent of being unable to talk properly because of a stroke, Live Science informs.
Dystextia was first documented as a potential stroke symptom December 2012, when specialists published a paper detailing the case of a woman who, because of a mild stroke, sent an odd text message to her husband.
Dr. Samer Al-Hadidi and fellow researchers believe that, sometime in the not-too-distant future, unintelligible text messages sent by folks to friends and family could serve as diagnostic tools and even help save the life of stroke patients.
