How conscious are they?

                 Currently, there is plenty of uncertainty about what an individual in the vegetative state can and cannot do. A person is usually considered to be in the vegetative state when they are unable to talk or voluntarily move. In order to gain further understanding in this ongoing area of research, scientists at the Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit (MRC CBSU) and Cambridge University subjected patients in the vegetative state to auditory stimuli. They then conducted the same procedure on healthy volunteers for comparison purposes. According to the article “Patient in vegetative state not just aware, but paying attention, study suggests,” the researchers found that one of the patients reacted to and was able to focus on certain “target” words in a manner that resembled the healthy volunteer. The patient, just as a healthy individual could, “was able to filter out unimportant information and hone in on relevant words they were being asked to pay attention to,” according to the article. What’s even more remarkable is that after utilizing fMRI for brain imaging, the researchers noticed that the patients were capable of following simple commands directed towards them. These findings by the researchers indicate the level of consciousness that some patients in the vegetative state retain. According to the article, these findings also open the gateway for further communication with vegetative state patients, and may potentially lead to the improvement of communication abilities of the patients with the outside world.

                      

                      In Daniel Bor’s book The Ravenous Brain, Bor mentions that a supervisor of his named Adrian Owen conducted a similar study in which he subjected patients in the vegetative state to auditory stimuli, and also put them in the fMRI scanner to observe their reactions to the stimuli. Owen grouped the patients into four categories based on the level of response that they displayed to the stimuli. He managed to find two patients who ranked in the highest category of responsiveness, which was the “ability to process the meaning of words.” (Bor, 227) By observing the reaction of these patients to auditory stimuli, Owen was able to determine to a certain degree their level of consciousness as well. He was able to set certain criteria that needed to be met by the patients for them to be classified into a certain category.  Owen also added on to the study mentioned above by noting that their level of consciousness could help determine or predict “how much they would recover six months down the line.” (Bor, 228) Owen’s study seems to have added another aspect to the previously mentioned study by taking into account the prognosis of the vegetative state patient. The findings of both of the studies provide insight that should be very helpful for the future of this area of research. As more becomes known about the vegetative state through similar studies, a cure may be in arms reach.

Bor, Daniel. The Ravenous Brain: How the New Science of Consciousness Explains Our Insatiable Search for Meaning.  New York: Basic, 2012.  Print.
 

University of Cambridge. "Patient in 'vegetative state' not just aware, but paying attention, study suggests." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 31 October 2013. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/10/131031110558.htm>.