State of vegetative growth : a doctor to communicate with patients

zlikovec/Epictura

Published the 30.08.2017 at 17h04

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Keywords :

neuroscienceétat végétatifconscience

Patients in a vegetative state, that is now called instead of awakening a non-response, show no outward sign of consciousness. However, their brain activity is not null. But it is impossible to communicate with them, in contrast to patients in state of minimal consciousness, which can be answered by yes or no, blinking eyes, for example.

But impossible is not british-canadian. A famous neuroscientist English, Dr. Adrian Owen, who now continues his research at the university of Ontario from the West (Canada), uses a method somewhat unexpected that allows him, in some of these patients, to establish a connection through the language.

The tennis, it is yes

The protocol is the following : the interrogator asks a closed question. If the patient is a victim of the syndrome of awakening non-respondent wishes to reply ” yes “, he can just think of a tennis match for 30 seconds, and this ten times in a row, in order to be 100% sure that he responds well to the question.

This particular thought stimulates dense areas in synapses in the brain, at the level of the cortex, pre-motor. All actions, such as catching the racket, hit the ball and observe its motion are developed. This peak in activity is then observed by means of functional MRI.

A first experience saving

This procedure seems simple, but is actually the culmination of 20 years of research. Dr. Owen has used for the first time imaging to observe the brain activity in 1997. The first patient, Kate, was a vegetative state total in appearance.

The neuroscientist had the idea to track with a scanner a reaction in the brain at the sight of pictures of his family. “To my great surprise, a reaction appeared in an area of the brain called the fusiform gyrus (an elongated area located under the lobes of the brain, editor’s note), he explains in the Daily Mail. This zone is associated with facial recognition. “

A few months later, Kate is output bit by bit from his state of arousal non-respondent. She was even able to send him a letter, years later, summoning him to use his case to promote the use of brain imaging to show the state of consciousness of patients in his case.