Vegetative Patient Talks With His Brain

Boston (DbTechNo) - Results of a new study suggest that patients in a vegetative state maybe able to communicate afterall.

Currently it is believed that once a patient is deemed to be in a vegetative state, they are unable to communicate or do anything for themselves.

Scientists used a technique referred to as functional magnetic resonance imaging on 23 patients deemed to be in a vegetative state to see if their brains showed any sign of life at all.

Surprisingly in 4 of the patients scanned, their brains showed signs of awareness a miracle of sorts.

Even more surprising was the fact that one of the patients could answer yes or no purely by thought.

The man had been in a vegetative state for 5 years, but clearly showed the ability to answer simple questions using his brainpower.

“We were astonished when we saw the results of the patient’s scan and that he was able to correctly answer the questions that were asked by simply changing his thoughts,” said Adrian Owen, co-author of the study from the Medical Research Council.