How Doctors Peer into the Minds of Vegetative Patients
From: Scientific American - 05/2014 - page 54
By: Brian M. Owen

Communicating with patients who appear to lack consciousness is becoming a
reality

Improved trauma care had led to more people surviving brain injury but ending
up in vegetative or minimally conscious states. Researchers are devising
imaging techniques to dtermine which patients retain some awareness or might
regain consciousness.

Functional magnetic resonanceimaging has revealed surprisingly that a portion
of patients who are lebeled "vegetative" are conscious. Some can answer
questions by imagining one activity for "yes" and another for "no".

Investigators are now turning to electrocardiographic technology to try to
devise an easier, bedside approach to detecting consciousness. On the more
distant horizon are brain-computer interfaces that would enable patients with
hidden consciousness to communicate.

Read the preview at:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-doctors-peer-into-the-minds-of-vegetative-patients/

Links:
Regaining Consciousness: One Patient's Story (video )
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/consciousness-regaining-consciousness-one-patients-story-video/

Eyes Open, Brain Shut (Abstract)
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/eyes-open-brain-shut/