New Scientist has an amazing new therapy for patients in a vegetative state – using the same direct current-stimulation that increases creative “flow” to turn their brains back on all the way:
The team worked with 55 people who had experienced a traumatic brain injury or lack of oxygen to the brain and were in a minimally conscious or vegetative state. They placed electrodes over their left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex – an area involved in memory, decision-making and awareness. Then they delivered 20 minutes of stimulation to some of the people and a sham treatment to the others. The next day, the two groups received the opposite therapy.
During brain stimulation, 13 people with minimal consciousness and two people in a vegetative state showed signs of awareness that were observed neither before the stimulation nor after the sham treatment.
For most of these people the changes were moderate, but some recovered the ability to communicate, says Laureys. “Two patients emerged from a minimally conscious state altogether.” When asked questions such as “Am I touching my nose?”, they were able to answer by nodding their head or making specific eye movements.
Others were able to respond to simple commands to nod, or squeeze their hand. All the effects lasted for about 2 hours. The findings will be published in the journal Neurology.
For some patients, it was only weeks since their trauma had happened, but others had been minimally conscious for years. This is important, says Laureys. “There’s this dogma that if you don’t see a change in 12 months you will never see it. This research challenges that.”