Unconscious man 'speaks' through brain scan

Ciaran187

http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0204/brain.html

A man in a vegetative state for the last five years has communicated with doctors through his thoughts.

British and Belgian researchers used a brain scanner called functional magnetic resonance imaging to show the man was able to think 'yes' or 'no' answers to questions by wilfully changing his brain activity.

The man suffered a severe traumatic brain injury in a road accident in 2003.

Experts say the result means all patients in coma-like states should be reassessed and it may change the way they are cared for in future.

After detecting signs of awareness, the doctors scanned the man's brain while he was asked to say 'yes' or 'no' to questions such as 'Is your father's name Thomas?'. The results showed that by changing his brain activity, the man communicated his answer.

Pretty cool & sad at the same time. Someone who is fully aware of, and understanding, what's being said and not being able to respond for the rest of their life.

Big Knox

Old news, anyone who has seen the turtles knows that brains can talk just look at Krang!!

ScumLord

Wrong forum, and life on mars ended ages ago.

o1s1n

Wasn't this already in an episode of House?

minidazzler

If I were him I would be hoping the doctors ask. Do you want to be Euthanised?

WindSock

Talk to the Brain, the face ain't listenin.

Ciaran187

minidazzler wrote: »

If I were him I would be hoping the doctors ask. Do you want to be Euthanised?

Crossed my mind too.

stovelid

I can't really see what the fuss is all about?

People in profoundly vegetative states communicate with the public on a regular basis through outlets like xFactor and the SINDO?

Turtwig

Ciaran187 wrote: »

http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0204/brain.html



Pretty cool & sad at the same time. Someone who is fully aware of, and understanding, what's being said and not being able to respond for the rest of their life.

He isn't fully aware. He's more in state of being fed "dreams" and the researchers record how the brain responds i.e what decision he would make if dreaming. Dreaming of tennis = yes.
Dreaming of something else = no.
Using this technique they can get some yes/no answers out of the patients. The important thing to note here though is that they can't yet determine how cognitive the patient is and how much s/he can deduce regarding complex questions or conversations. At the most simplistic level you can tap the patient and ask them about various memories, but as for the ethical dilemma of euthanasia the research is a long way off even assessing whether such a question can be asked, nevermind answered. At least not yet anyway.

Edit : Meant to add that even though he's not fully aware, his consciousness doesn't seem to be far off it either. It will be really interesting to see if they can get it to make complex decisions that would be an awesome breakthrough.

Ciaran187

I snipped the story to avoid TL;DR.

The story continues that they asked him a series of yes / no questions such as "Is your father's name Thomas" and he responded correctly each time. To me, that's proof he's hearing fine, it's reaching the brain which is processing it correctly & understanding it and then provides a correct response.

Whether these simple yes / no questions are so native and in-built that it doesn't require any sufficient mental capacity to provide the answer is beyone my level of expertise. I don't think it's a case where they sat him in front of the news and then asked him questions on it.

AnonoBoy

If he can start getting more complex messages out to the doctors I bet the first one will be:

"Please, for the love of God, turn off that f*cking Afternoon Show on the telly!"