Article Summary #7

Miller, G. Is there Anybody in There? ScienceNOW Daily News. 3 Feb 2010.

There is a new study that provides hope that will open the lines of communication between families and patients in a vegetative state. Researchers say that someone with severe brain injury can answer simple questions by controlling his thoughts to influence the scans of his brain activity. In 2006, researchers, using an MRI, tested a young woman who was diagnosed as being in a vegetative state after being involved in a car accident. She was unresponsive and unaware of her surroundings, but showed patterns of brain activity when she was asked to imagine herself playing tennis or walking in her house.

In the new study, a similar method was used to examine 53 people who were in a vegetative state or slightly less severe conscious state. Researchers found that in four of these patients, distinct patterns of brain activity during the tennis and house imaging task was found that showed some level of awareness that could not be detected by their behavior. A study was done in a 22 year old male who was in a vegetative state for 5 years. Researchers asked him to answer six questions by imagining tennis to indicate a “yes” or the house for a “no”. The questions involved basic questions about himself such as the name of his father, or if he had any brothers or sisters. Researchers reported this method worked 100 percent of the time.