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Brain scans suggest those in vegetative state react emotionally to loved ones

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Vodsel

Vodsel

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This article in wired talks about the findings recently published in PLOS One.

A team of Israeli neuroscientists has shown that the regions of the brain responsible for processing emotional significance and autobiographical information are activated in a group of people deemed to be in a vegetative state (VS). In two patients the amygdala -- the region of the brain responsible for processing memory and emotional attachments -- was activated simply when the researchers asked them to think of a loved one, suggesting a level of awareness in VS patients never before identified.
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Significantly, the anterior cingulate cortex and the anterior insula were activated when familiar faces were viewed, regions already deemed to be related to "high level sensory and emotional processing of familiar faces" according to the team. They believe it is the "co-activation" of these various regions during the experiments that suggests more might be going on than a spontaneous response, since this kind of complex interconnectivity is thought to be responsible for emotional awareness in healthy individuals.
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Besides the significance of the findings for medical work, I find particularly interesting that this basal awareness operates in the high-level emotional correlates in the brain. The anterior cingulate cortex is crowded with HT-2A receptors.
 
Very interesting thanks for sharing :)

OK lets say they are responding emotionally to it.. now what?

What will be the best decision, keep them alive in their vegetative state and have loved ones come once in a while to speak to them in hope it `warms their heart` ? Or pull the plug anyways because one way or another they are stuck to that state and it might like a very long lasting nightmare from their subjective perspective?

Or maybe find a way to ask them whether they want to live or die, and read the brain signs and translate ?
 
endlessness said:
Or maybe find a way to ask them whether they want to live or die, and read the brain signs and translate ?
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I think this is the crux of the matter. This research opens up the potential possibilities for communication between people in vegetative state and the medical staff and family, or at least suggests there are ways to access what's going on inside of the brain of the patient.

There have been quite a few things in the past tagged as "non-responsive" or inert until the right knowledge and tools said otherwise.
 
endlessness said:
Very interesting thanks for sharing :)

OK lets say they are responding emotionally to it.. now what?

What will be the best decision, keep them alive in their vegetative state and have loved ones come once in a while to speak to them in hope it `warms their heart` ? Or pull the plug anyways because one way or another they are stuck to that state and it might like a very long lasting nightmare from their subjective perspective?

Or maybe find a way to ask them whether they want to live or die, and read the brain signs and translate ?
Click to expand...

I'm not sure if the base emotion of reacting to the vicinity of a loved one and advanced cognition such as determining whether or not one wants to die share an equal kind of "status" if you know what I mean. It may only be the case that the brain merely reacts to their presence, and not their language, or even less likely to be able to make advanced decisions. I think it's intriguing and should definitely be looked into and researched more, but I'm not sure it necessarily offers an answer as to how we should go about medically treating them.
 
Interesting paper-thanks for posting, Vodsel.

Tricky business, diagnosing a vegetative state accurately; heres the Royal College of Physicians guidelines:



As the study notes, the fMRI findings don't allow for making any firm conclusions as to the extent of emotional correlation going on up top as we understand it. I found it unsurprising that of the VS patients the best performers were those whose VS was due to traumatic brain injury rather than anoxia (and the paper gave little historical info pertaining to each patients' etiology beyond this).


The etiology is important because this has a large bearing on the prognosis- dismal as it is in those who truly have a VS.For example, a VS caused by Creutzfeld Jacob disease will proceed to death by neurodegeneration whilst that due to trauma may 'improve' to a minimally conscious state (MCS). In the study Vodsel posted the patients who improved didn't have significant brain atrophy compared to those who remained in a VS, so knowing if any possible emotional 'understanding' as it were across both groups is equally meaningful is presently unquantifiable despite the lighting up of similar areas on fMRI.

Technological advancements often raise more questions than providing answers.
 
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