She's awake- or is she?

Scientists, doctors, and even families are often confused by one question. Is the person who is in a coma and vegetative state actually conscious or not? This haunting question has caused many families to be ripped apart from their loved ones as tough decisions have to be made once the patient is confirmed to be in a permanent vegetative state.

            According to studies conducted by UCLA psychologists, “the difference between being conscious and unconscious is a bit like the difference between driving from Los Angeles to New York in a straight line versus having to cover the same route hopping on and off several buses that force you to take a zig-zag route and stop in several places.” This research puts light on the fact that consciousness is not as simply as many people may think it is. Simply knowing if that loved one in coma is conscious or not is not an easy task for even doctors with years of experience as 43% of the cases are misdiagnosed according to Bor.

            What this new research has to offer is that it shows that consciousness is not simply focused in one aspect of the brain. It is true that the thalamus plays an incredibly important role in consciousness; however, in reality consciousness is dispersed throughout the brain. Scans of people under anesthesia shows how the brains of people in comas and vegetative states may act. Under anesthesia, the signals between the neurons are scattered everywhere and it is difficult to reach the final destination which is similar to patients in a coma who cannot come back. The question then becomes whether or not it is possible to still bring these patients back into a functional state of consciousness.

            Interestingly enough, a famous case of a twenty three year old woman who was in a vegetative state showed immense improvement in her situation. There was even a man who stayed in a coma for thirteen years and then suddenly came back. In order to understand these cases, researchers have used EEGs to track brain activity as well as fMRI scans. By putting patients who are in a vegetative state under the scanner, researchers have found that many of them are actually not completely unconscious. Some even have portions of their brains that work exactly like the normal healthy patients.

            Newer therapy such as deep brain stimulation which stimulates the thalamus as well as the prefrontal cortex have been used to bring certain patients to conduct a limited number of activities such as being able to press buttons and follow simple commands. However, it is still a long way to go before adequate treatment is found since the surface has only been scratched with our understanding on what it means to be conscious. Not only that, a severe issue has become that patients who do come back suffer from extreme amnesia, memory, as well as behavioral problems. A scan of their brains reveals that their brains have shrunk in size significantly with the large amount of damage. Not only has their personality changed, but they are no longer the same person. In the coming days, the new question may become how to deal with patients who have come back from a coma as that poses a whole new issue in itself.

Bor, D. (2012).The Ravenous Brain: How the new science of consciousness explains our insatiable search for meaning. New York: Basic Books.

University of California- Los Angeles. (2013, October 17). Psychologists report new insights on human brain, consciousness. ScienceDaily. Retrieved October 11, 2014 from

www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/10/131017173646.htm