Doctors Communicate With Man In "Vegetative" State
(London) -- A man in a deep coma, or vegetative state -- as it's often referred to -- has apparently been able to communicate with doctors by changing brain activity. A team of British and Belgian researchers reported on Wednesday that they had successfully used a brain-scan method known as functional magnetic resonance imaging, or FMRI, to detect changes in brain waves. When doctors asked the patient "yes" or "no" questions -- the answers to which they already knew -- the man answered correctly by changing the pattern of his brain waves. An American neurologist, Nicholas Schiff, labeled the development "a game changer" and called for similar assessments of people in so-called vegetative states. The full report was posted online by the "New England Journal of Medicine." |