Brain scans of some unresponsive hospital patients show detectable activity
A quarter of hospital patients who are unresponsive and don’t physically respond to commands may be doing so mentally, a new study found. The research relied on brain scans of the patients.
When a patient with a brain injury is unresponsive, doctors turn to certain basic tests to see if they could still have some awareness: calling their name, clapping near their ear or inserting a cotton swab in their nose.
Those who don’t wake up are often believed to have lost consciousness.
But a new study suggests that a quarter of brain-injured patients who don’t physically respond to commands are doing so mentally. The results were published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The study looked at 353 patients who, from the outside, seemed to have lost consciousness due to a brain injury. The sources of these injuries varied from accidents to heart attacks and strokes. Of those patients, 241 were diagnosed as being in a coma, a vegetative state or having only minimal consciousness.
The researchers gave the patients verbal commands, like telling them to imagine themselves swimming or to open and close their hands. For 60 of the 241 patients, there was evidence that they could still perform those tasks in their head. The study refers to this as “cognitive motor dissociation.” Some doctors prefer the term “covert awareness.”
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