4th Feb 10
Coma victim communicates with MRI
by Adam Richards
A coma victim, who was said to be brain dead by doctors, has answered simple questions by using thought, according to a team of neuroscientists.
Researchers communicated with the 29-year-old Belgian, who had suffered severe head injuries about five years ago, by mapping his brain with an fMRI scanner as he answered questions. He was asked to think one type of activity if the answer was ‘yes’ and another for ‘no’.
The case was published in the New England Journal of Medicine by scientists from the University of Liege and the Medical Research Council’s Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit in Cambridge.
One doctor form the MRC unit said the team had been astonished when they saw the results of the patient’s scan and that he was able to answer correctly the questions that were asked by simply changing his thoughts.
The unnamed patient is one of 54 with brain injuries who took part in the study.
The team of scientists used super-sensitive fMRI scanners on four vegetative patients, who gave no signs of consciousness or responsiveness on conventional measures.
The procedure was implemented in an earlier study, which received much publicity when it was published in 2006. Following that, Dr Owens and colleagues showed that an apparently vegetative woman with severe head injuries could imagine playing tennis or walking around her home.
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