A new brain scan device has been developed and is being tested on some patients. In one study done by British and Belgian researchers, a man could communicate ‘yes’ and ‘no’ by thought patterns. This man was presumed to be in a vegetative state for five years after he sustained a severe traumatic brain injury in a traffic accident. fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) is used to map brain activity do a series of questions. The man correctly answered the questions by simply changing his thoughts. The thoughts were decoded using the fMRI technique.
In another case, a man named Rom Houben (46 years old) who was diagnosed as being vegetative for 23 years, showed some awareness. He was excluded from the new study however because he could not keep his head still enough for the scanner to produce a usable scan. His awareness was revealed by beside behavioral tests.
A downside to the scan is that it can only decode the brains answered to such questions in healthy, non-vegetative participants. It is said to be 100 percent accurate. The new research suggests that standard tests may have been overlooking patients who have some consciousness. One day some kind of communication may be possible if the research keeps going smoothly. Positive signals only appeared in patients that had traumatic brain injury, but not people whose brains had been deprived of oxygen.
Another research was done to see if the fMRI could pick up special patterns. People in Leipzig were asked to help during this study. A person would hold a mathematical decision in their minds until they were shown two numbers on a computer screen. The method used was called ‘multivariate pattern recognition’ according to the researchers. The fMRI scans monitored their brain activity for a few seconds when they were thinking about their sum, and it was on this information that the scientists made their predictions.
With the media covering this news, many people can find new hope that they once were not aware of. Some people might find some hope and peace in their lives if they can communicate a little more with loved ones. I think that if the study keeps improving, like some researchers, one day we could communicate with patients in a way that they could express their feelings and thoughts along with increasing their quality of life.
In my opinion I think that the research is excellent and exciting news. So many patients have been overlooked because there was not much hope in them recovering. Now that this research has been introduced more, maybe a few more lives can be saved. By looking into more cases it is possible to find some patients that have a better chance at some recovery with specialized treatment.
