Sep 21, 2010 15:02 GMT  ·  By
Patients in persistent vegetative states can now answer simple yes/no questions
   Patients in persistent vegetative states can now answer simple yes/no questions

A team of experts from the UK has recently developed a groundbreaking development of an established brain imaging technology, that may enable healthcare experts to communicate with brain dead patients.

The team that achieved this remarkable result is based at the Cambridge University, and is led by expert Adrian Owen. They have already demonstrated that the technology works.

The work bears extensive ramifications. It represents the first instance when it was directly proven that patients who exhibit no exterior signs of awareness can actually understand what's going on around them.

Moreover, the brain dead patients can also answer simple questions of the yes/no type, the research group reveals. Owen believes that advancements in technology will soon allow them to speak through voice synthesizers.

This will take place nearly in real time, the expert goes on to say. Moving around in motorized wheelchairs is also a possibility, given that numerous companies are currently working on a brain computer interface to benefit the paralyzed.

Owen was the leader of the group that learned how to use a brain imaging technique known as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to figure out patients' responses to various questions.

But while demonstrating this ability with an fMRI machine was an achievement in itself, Owen's group started looking for a more affordable method of doing this.

They were finally able to do so recently, when they demonstrated that answers to yes/no questions are also visible on electroencephalography (EEG) readings of the patients.

This is a technique that allows doctors to measure the electrical activity that the brain exhibits. This is done through a series of electrodes attached to a patient's scalp, and is a non-invasive and painless procedure.

The team that developed the approach estimates that a commercially available device that would enable brain dead patients to communicate freely will be made available within a decade.

“I would never have believed that within a few years we would be actually communicating with a patient who was in a persistent vegetative state,” Owen explains, quoted by The Telegraph.

“We have seen something that is quite extraordinary. We now have a moral and ethical obligation to find ways for them to communicate properly,” he goes on to say.

“We cannot be putting them in an fMRI scanner every time they want to communicate. It is very expensive and they are not portable and not available everywhere,” the scientist reveals.

“EEG could work as well and it is cheaper and portable. I feel it will be possible for people to steer wheelchairs and be able to communicate,” Owen concludes.