Sudden 'dystextia' can be sign of stroke.

• Position: Neurology - Brief article

The ever-expanding digital record left by texts and e-mails can offer warning signs of possible strokes and other brain disorders, stroke specialists are finding. Vascular neurologist Mark J. Alberts says unclear text messages--a phenomenon better known as "dystextia"--along with jumbled e-mails and other unusual patterns in communicating can be signs of dysphasia, which is an inability to communicate due to brain injury and is a common indicator of a stroke.

"What we're looking for--whether it's speaking, e-mailing, or texting--are real errors in terms of using the wrong words in the wrong way at the wrong time. Saying 'I took my car out for a walk' instead of 'I took my dog out for a walk' could be indicative of a language problem, and that can tell us that something is going on in the brain."

Dystextia is turn-of-phrase terminology popularized by Harvard University researchers, who wrote in the journal Archives of Neurology about a case in...