Loading...
Minimally conscious patients have been reported to show response to stories read aloud (Journal Watch Psychiatry Mar 24 2005). Now, researchers report cerebral activity on functional MRI with verbal stimuli in a patient who is in a persistent vegetative state.
After a severe traumatic brain injury in July 2005 (initial Glasgow Coma Scale score, 4), the patient required a bifrontal decompressive craniectomy and ventriculoperitoneal shunt. MRI revealed right lateral frontal and right anterior temporal atrophy and deep white-matter hyperintensity in the right frontal lobe.
The patient and 34 healthy controls were presented with 188 spoken sentences, 59 acoustically matched noise trials, and 60 silent trials. In response to sentences, the middle …