There is an interesting story about Belgian/UK research workers using brain scanning techniques to 'communicate' with patients who had been thought to be in a persistent vegetative state for several years (http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3027a128-1147-11df-a6d6-00144feab49a.html). They broadly asked these 'locked in' patients to think of different things to answer 'yes' or 'no' to questions (e.g. the name of their father). One of the items used to generate a 'yes' answer was to ask them to think of playing tennis which 'lights up' motor areas in the brain. 'No' was walking around their home that produces a different response. There are a number of interesting aspects to this research. The first thing is that it would only work if the patient's hearing was unimpaired (I don't think that visual questions were used). The motor areas of the brain would also have to be intact as well as the patient's ability to imagine the scenarios. I am also unsure if the results actually mean that the patient has consciousness in the traditional sense (although some formerly 'locked in' patients have gone on to write books on their experiences). The key question, however, is whether the technique could be used ethically to ask the patient about his/her wishes.
2 comments:
I heard this news item too. But I hadn't thought of the implications. Indeed, supposing the person was reliably and accurately responding to questions in this manner, and you asked a curler like "Do you want to go on living?" Or worse, did NOT ask questions that, in the new 'reached' state, the person was anxious to answer.
I can only imagine the huge frustration a non-locked person would have. Do they feel the same, I wonder?
I suspect that some do
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