Meeting minds with brain-injured people

• Autores: Sara Reardon
• Localización: New scientist, ISSN 0262-4079, Nº. 2931, 2013, pág. 14
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • It can be nearly impossible to know what is happening in the mind of someone who has experienced a severe brain injury, but new methods could offer some clues. They provide a better indication of consciousness and a potentially effective way to communicate with some people in a vegetative state. Marcello Massimini at the University of Milan in Italy and his colleagues have developed a different way to assess mental state. They use an electromagnetic pulse to stimulate the brain, and then measure the response. The pulse acts like striking a bell, Massimini says, and causes neurons across the entire brain to "ring" in a specific wave pattern that can help identify whether someone is in a vegetative state, a minimally conscious state, or in the process of emerging from a coma.