Roused from a vegetative state

• Autores: Anil Ananthaswamy
• Localización: New scientist, ISSN 0262-4079, Nº. 3145, 2017, pág. 8
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Fifteen years after a car accident, a man in France has regained some aspects of consciousness, following stimulation of his brain via a nerve in his neck. The 35-year-old was diagnosed with "unresponsive wakefulness" after a car accident in 2001. That was until Angela Sirigu of the French National Centre for Scientific Research in Bron and her team stimulated his vagus nerve. Before treatment, the man's eyes were shut for most of the day. If open, they would stare into empty space, says Sirigu. That changed once her team began stimulating his vagus nerve. Almost immediately, he started opening his eyes more often. About a month after stimulation began, his behavioral improvements started stabilizing. "His eyes were moving around as if he wanted to follow me," says Sirigu. He then began to respond to instructions to turn his gaze from one side of the bed to another. When a clinician asked him to smile, he would react by raising his left cheek.