Talk The Talk: 'Finding words' after brain injury

'Finding words' after brain injury. The process of discovery can be both bewildering and endlessly challenging, says Billy Mann

I read a report recently with the headline Comedians’ ‘gift of the gab’ linked to differences in brain activity and it occurred to me that as I have recovered from the effects of a stroke more than two years ago I have become more articulate. I have no idea whether the two are causally related. In fact, I have no idea whether I have actually become more articulate (my wife is doubtful), and I am not sure how this could ever be measured. All I know is that the words seem to flow more easily, if that is a definition of articulacy. I cannot be certain how easily they flowed before my brain injury, but I do recall incidents in which I felt “tongue-tied” or “lost for words”. Now instead I sometimes feel verbally incontinent. The experience of not finding the right word at the right time is not unusual. Who has not emerged from a stalled conversation and not reflected later that “I wish I had said that…” Not now. Not for me, anyway. In fact, I suspect sometimes that my brain injury has left me with a special variant type of Tourette’s in which I can’t stop saying what I think.