(Healthy brain on left)
This will change everything about how we deal with brain death. Now in order to be completely sure that a person is really vegetative, we’ll have to scan their brains.
A UK/Belgian team studied a 23-year-old woman who had suffered a severe brain injury in a road accident, which left her apparently unable to communicate.
They said their findings, published in Science, were “startling”, but cautioned this could be a one-off case.
Five months after her accident, which happened in July 2005, the researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) to record the woman’s brain activity.
If the activity can be tracked, can it be used as an interface? Imagine a “persistently vegetative” person conversing with visiting relatives via a visiting-room computer/scanner.
The ability to track the activity could potentially allow us to know how she is feeling and maybe what she’s thinking about, but we’re still very far off from being able to input back into the brain. It’s science fiction for now, but a cool idea for the future.
Richard, simply ask her to think about playing tennis for “YES” and walking around the house for “NO”. Communication, via the question asked, is the “input” to the brain, and as long as hearing isn’t affected.
Until they figure out a way to determine whether the uncommunicative person is happy/content or not, I’m gonna be a pessimist and thus if I’m in that state, pull the plug.
If I ever reach a point where I can only imagine tennis, pull the plug.
I’d do the same for you…
Maybe she was big into tennis. The pathway could be anything the subject has a deep focus on.
I think this is more singular then general.
…This may mean that the young woman has been in transition from an unresponsive, vegetative state to a sometimes-responsive condition known as a minimally conscious state. An estimated 100,000 Americans exist in this state of partial consciousness, and some of them eventually regain full awareness. …
About 50 percent of people with such injuries recover some awareness in the first year after the injury, studies find; very few do so afterward. …
A 1994 review of more than 700 vegetative patients found that none had done so after two years.
Still, it might be useful to determine the degree or damage.
Mr H. Fusion – only 100,000 Americans exist in a state of partial consciousness? I would have put the number at closer to 150,000,000! 😉
So what..I look at it as what would be the persons quality of life. Can they contribute to society? There is no way I am going to burden my family if I ever end up in this situation. I don’t care if they want me to live. It’s my choice. Make sure you have your living will up to date.
“The ability to track the activity could potentially allow us to know how she is feeling and maybe what she’s thinking about,…”
Terri Schiavo anyone??
I’m changing my living will to add: “Before pulling the plug, pipe me into in Intel Dual Core.”
#10 Terri Schiavo anyone??
Of course this is why this story is all over the place yesterday and today.
I still think they did the right thing. Serves the family right to get politics involved in your personal live.
But Smarty… it’s tennis.
#10. I don’t trust these “scientists” myself – these are the same people who tell us that we are descended from monkeys rather than from Adam and Eve, that the oil that God put in the ground for us to use is wrecking the environment, and they want to kill those stem-cell babies.
or should I just pick and choose, discarding science when it supports my ideological preferences and reject it when it doesnt?
14. well, that should be “accepting science when it supports my ideological preferences …”