fMRI
In a follow up to the article "The FBI Continues To Break The Law" it was announced one day later, the same Mind Reading Technology (FMRI - functional magnetic resonance imaging) the Judiciary Report wrote of in the aforementioned entry, has been used in a proper manner, to communicate with a man coming out of a coma who is unable to speak. As discussed yesterday, Mind Reading Technology is appropriate in "a lab or hospital setting."
Vegetative patient "talks" using brain waves
Wed Feb 3, 2010 5:35pm EST - LONDON (Reuters) - A man in a deeply unconscious state for five years has been able to communicate with doctors using just his thoughts in a study scientists say is a "game changer" for care of vegetative state patients.
British and Belgian researchers used a brain scanner called functional magnetic resonance imaging to show the man, who suffered a severe traumatic brain injury in a road accident in 2003, was able to think "yes" or "no" answers to questions by wilfully changing his brain activity.
Experts say the result means all patients in coma-like states should be reassessed and it may change the way they are cared for in future.
After detecting signs of awareness, the doctors scanned the man's brain while he was asked to say "yes" or "no" to questions such as "is your father's name Thomas?." The results showed that by changing his brain activity, the man communicated his answer.
"We were astonished when we saw the results of the patient's scan and that he was able to correctly answer the questions that were asked by simply changing his thoughts," said Adrian Owen, co-author of the study from the Medical Research Council.
"Not only did these scans tell us that the patient was not in a vegetative state but, more importantly, for the first time in five years it provided the patient with a way of communicating his thoughts to the outside world."
The man, now 29 years old, was one of 23 patients diagnosed as being in a vegetative state who were scanned using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)...
