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Do Vegetative Patients Dream of Comatose Sheep?

Research sheds light on impaired brain activity

By Zach Samalin, Newser Staff

Posted Oct 14, 2007 9:57 AM CDT

(Newser) – New research into the way vegetative brains function is challenging the way the scientific community classifies cognitively impaired patients. Recent studies show that some vegetative patients can recognize faces, acquire new memories, and imagine physical movement—all mental activities long held to be out of reach for such patients, the New Yorker writes.

In one experiment, when vegetative patients were asked to imagine playing tennis, MRI brain scans showed activity in the same parts of the brain activated in a real match. Such research contradicts assumptions that if the outside is unresponsive, the inside must be as well. The breakthrough information could help put some on the road to recovery.

Ten years ago, a young British neuroscientist discovered that patients in a vegetative state may retain more functions than people had realized. The research and controversy continues to this day. (Shutterstock.com)

A nuclear medicine technologist, talks to a patient before a positron emission tomography cat scan, or PET-CT, at River Radiology in Kingston, N.Y., Friday, June 15, 2007, in this file photo. Scanners... (Associated Press)

At least one PET scan of a vegetative patient has produced results that seem to indicate recognition of familiar images and sounds. (KRT Photos)

An MRI of the human brain. Some of the experimental patients even appeared to be able to imagine a complex task upon command. (Shutterstock.com)

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Do Vegetative Patients Dream of Comatose Sheep?

Research sheds light on impaired brain activity

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