MRI Brain Scans Show Signs of Consciousness in Some "Vegetative" Patients

A few months ago, Belgian man Rom Houben hit the headlines for a misdiagnosis that lasted 23 years. Houben was thought to have lost all brain function in a horrific car accident, and was believed to be in a persistent vegetative state. New evaluations helped determine that Houben actually had normal brain activity, and was yearning to communicate--although the "facilitated communication" his family used to allow Houben to tell his story quickly kicked up a kerfuffle over the validity of the whole tale. Now, a new study published in The New England Journal of Medicine gives credence to the notion that some patients who have been classified as vegetative are actually conscious, and a rare few may be able to communicate. The researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to scan patients' brains, and to record any activity generated in the patients' brains following verbal prompts and questions from the doctors. They found signs of awareness in four patients, one of whom was able to answer basic yes or no questions by activating different parts of his brain.