Dystextia: masked by autocorrect!

Recently, you could find many articles talking about doctors in Detroit that tested a man for a stroke because his text messages were "garbled"— even though he had no other symptoms.

His score of 2 on the NIHSS indicated the possibility of a minor stroke, which, in turn, prompted a brain scan that showed the man had indeed suffered a mild stroke. This is not a unique nor isolated case of what doctors are calling "dystextia". The Archives of Neurology lists other cases that spawned medical evaluation from signs of incoherent text messages.

This picture is for entertainment purpose only, and not a diagnostic example.

These case studies have let to a new hypothesize that the brain may treat text messaging entirely differently than other forms of language and writing. For instance, the man from Detroit couldn't accurately type a sentence on his phone that was given to him, although he could repeat the sentences correctly verbally.

Considering incoherent texts as a sign of stroke could prove useful to medical professionals. In addition to diagnosing a patient, we may be able to use the time stamps from texts to determine the precise timing of a stroke’s onset, unless, of course, autocorrect has masked the symptom of dystextia.

How about that!