Thursday, February 04, 2010

Wonders of the Brain

Brain injuries can be devastating, particularly when an individual’s brain is so injured as to render the individual to be diagnosed as being in a vegetative state, which makes the following rather amazing.

Many of the patients were labeled with the same grim diagnosis: “vegetative state.” Their head injuries, teams of specialists had concluded, condemned them to a netherworld—alive yet utterly devoid of any awareness of the world around them.

But an international team of scientists decided to try a bold experiment using the latest technology to peek inside the minds of 54 patients to see whether, in fact, they were conscious.

One by one, the men and women were placed inside advanced brain scanners as technicians gave them careful instructions: Imagine you are playing tennis. Imagine you are exploring your home, room by room. For most, the scanner showed nothing.

But, shockingly, for one, then another, and another, and yet two more, the scans flashed exactly like any healthy conscious person’s would. These patients, the images clearly indicated, were living silently in their bodies, their minds apparently active. One man could even flawlessly answer detailed yes-or-no questions about his life before his trauma by activating different parts of his brain.

From a Washington Post article headlined In ‘vegetative state’ patients, brain scanners show some alert minds.

One thing I was rather surprised at in reporting this, is that this new information was not sensationalized.

Posted by John Venlet on 02/04 at 11:46 AM
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