People watching the same movie, Alfred Hitchock’s “Bang! You’re Dead!” for instance, will have synchronized brain activity in high-level frontal and parietal brain regions. (Artwork by Rhodri Cusack)
Some patients thought to be in a vegetative state can have conscious experiences similar to healthy people, a new study shows.
Researchers used fMRI to record the brain activity of 2 brain-injured patients and 12 healthy participants while they watched a 8-minute clip of an Alfred Hitchcock movie. One of the brain-injured patients, a man in his mid-thirties who had not interacted with anyone for the last 16 years, had the same brain response while watching the movie as the 12 healthy individuals.
Authors conclude that this is the first time that an unresponsive patient is shown to be able to monitor and interpret his environment.
Original research paper published in PNAS on September 15, 2014.
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