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Wednesday, August 01, 2007A 38-year-old man who spent more than five years in a mute, barely conscious state as a result of a severe head injury is now communicating regularly with family members and recovering his ability to move after having his brain stimulated with pulses of electric current, neuroscientists are reporting. ....After being kicked repeatedly in the head during a mugging in 1999, he was sometimes able to move his thumb in response to yes-or-no questions but do little else. He rarely opened his eyes. Yet tests showed that language circuits in the left side of his brain and running through his prefrontal cortex — the rational, conscious areas — were intact. Brain injuries from blows to the head often sever nerve connections widely throughout the brain but can leave some circuits intact. Surgeons at the Cleveland Clinic threaded two wires through the man’s skull and into a sub-cortical area called the thalamus. The wires were connected to a unit resembling a pacemaker that was implanted under the man’s collarbone. .....Soon after the device was turned on, the man showed some improvements. His eyes opened. He became more reliably responsive. Over a period of months, members of the research team then tracked the man’s abilities during stretches when the current was turned on, and periods when it was off, without knowing when the device was activated. They found a gradual but consistent improvement in speech and movement when the device was on, and a loss of progress when it was off. He began to eat, without the assistance of a feeding tube. He regained some movement in his arms. He began to speak, usually with only a word or two but was fully engaged in the conversation. He recently recited the first 16 words of the Pledge of Allegiance. More on how deep brain stimulation is performed can be found here. posted by Sydney on 8/01/2007 08:54:00 PM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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