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Patient Revives After 19 Years By Rewiring Brain
dylanduck writes "A study of the recovery of a man who spent 19 years in a minimally conscious state has revealed the likely cause of his regained consciousness - his brain rewired itself around the injured areas into totally novel structures. It suggests the human brain shows far greater potential for recovery and regeneration then ever suspected." From the article: "There were ... significant changes between scans taken just two months after the recovery, and the most recent, at 18 months. Some of the new pathways had receded again, while others seem to have strengthened and taken over as Wallis continued to improve."
"Surprisingly, the circuits look nothing like normal brain anatomy"
Well, it IS possible! Right?
Lesbian Nazi Hookers Abducted by UFOs and Forced Into Weight Loss Programs - -all next week on Town Talk.
it took me about 5 tries before I realised this wasn't about brain patents :(
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Not funny anymore.
that although Slashdot regulars generally are in a "minimally conscious state", for rewiring to occur there must be something to rewire in the first place.
*looks around*
*slowly and uneasily raises right hand*
Because I'd be pretty pissed if I spent 18 years in a coma and I wasn't psychic.
Wow. The brain is without doubt the most interesting part of the (male) human body.
... was unavailable for comment.
/so going to hell
The Cosby Show is over.
There is hope for Slashdot after all!
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Neuroscientists in the epilepsy and learning and memory communities have known for years about the nervous systems ability to rewire and remodel in response to deafferentation. In fact, the reluctance to believe in this by other members of the neuroscience community (vision community) led to some two decades of misunderstanding of retinal degenerative diseases until we came along and demonstrated conclusively in the retina that remodeling also occurs. The deal is that neurons need input. They either get it via glutamatergic signaling or calcium mediated signaling in normal circumstances. When those signaling mechanisms are disturbed, neurons either rewire seeking additional input, or they die.
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After rewiring his brain he is now BS 7671 compliant and can be used in europe.
Does this mean that the incurably unintellectual politicians and religious leaders we seem to put in charge of everything can hope to rewire and do a better Job :-)?
I would like to know what limits the rewiring rate in such a state? Is it metabolic? Or does the rate of new axon growth and synapse formation follow the normal growth rate of neural cells late in life - which, as I recall, is fairly slow?. This was obviously a long process, but was there a certain "critical point" reached during the rewiring that, once passed, assured recovery of functions? Is this subconscious dreaming or thinking that manipulates signaling, and could simple brain simulaion methods achieve a similar goal in the absence of such a process? Hopefully such a case generates academic interest that will help progress this area of brain research.
Well, this is absolutley incredible news, but I am curious if some would see it as being a survival mechinism?
Except for Rip Van Winkle, I don't think that a 19 year period of repair and adaption would really lend itself to survival. Not to say that this isn't miraculous, but, I'm sure the recovery time will be significant.
Besides, would you really want to wake up 20 years older, with years of rehabilitation to look forward to? I would be more concerned with the ethics of keeping someone alive for that long.
I was in a real bad wreck in 1976, my brain hardly worked for a year or more, but I got better. I wonder what a scan of it would look like? Would it be wierdly wired like this guy's?
Few people I know would be surprised to find my brain was wired wierd.
Since then, the thought has occurred to me that I could have actually gone into a coma and the last forty years could have been a dream. But then, any of you could have had an accident and not know it, and be dreaming this. So there's little point in not behaving as if reality is real, especially considering the incredibly high probability that this IS real.
I wonder if he dreamed?
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
NEWSIE:
Tonight, on Eyewitness News: a man who's been in a coma for 19 years wakes up.
MAN:
Do Sonny and Cher still have that stupid show?
NEWSIE:
No, uh, she won an Oscar, and he's a Congressman.
MAN:
Good night! [Turns over and dies.]
If you don't know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else.
He was in a coma. There was enough extant brain matter to hold out hope for a minimal recovery at some future point. The minimal recovery occurred about 3 years ago and they have studied his brain since then to see how it develops after such a long period of inactivity in a lot of regions. Basic brain growth due to everyday practice of activities (in his case, limited activities) is all that is being observed. This is not a breakthrough by any means and appears to me, with the press release, etc., to be written to attract funding to the authors for further study by implying novelty in their research.
Nah, being in a "minimally conscious state" means they were able to put him to work as a hospital administrator.
I for one welcome our new classic overlords.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
I hate to feed the troll, but Terri Schiavo's brain was destroyed. She was blind, brain dead, and for all intents and purposes, a shell. There's a huge difference between her case, and this one.
I believe the difference between this case and something like Terry Schiavo is that there was still measurable brain activity in this guy so he wasn't brain dead.
But I agree it would be pretty shitty to wake up and find half your body gone to organ donation. The recent successful face transplant in France used part of the face of a brain dead patient. Imagine waking up to be told you'd had your face removed and given to someone else!
Over the past few years, I've steadily built up respect and mod-points to the point where I have a +1 comment bonus. Well, it was all for this one moment: so that I could say something that needs to be said, and yet still have my account and maybe even my +1 bonus survive the consequences. ...
You, sir, or madam, are embarrasingly stupid.
Untrue. Managers have half a brain, so this actually brings usage up to 6%. We round to ten just to be nice.
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I mean think about it, last time he was awake was in 1987. The world has changed ALOT since then... I wonder how I'd feel?
"Internet? What's that? Computers, those are the huge things that big businesses and the government use, right?"
We need a name for this recovery process. How about "brain nukem forever"? :)
Welcome! To the world of... tomorrow!
It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.
-Voltaire
There was a mexican movie (ficticious) about a 19-yo guy who went into coma in 1971 and woke up in 1992, having to cope with a grown up family, an older (and remarried) wife, and of course, new political times.
It was called "El bulto" (the bag). Very interesting movie.
Keeping him on support all this time must have been (or will be) an incredible financial drain on his family. I'd imagine that the medical bill was ludicrous, so hopefully he comes from a family with money. Being alive is great, but life sure isn't going to be easy considering:
a) When he looks into a mirror his face will be 19 years older... from 19 to 38 kinda sucks
b) His muscle mass will be negligable. After being in a cast for only 3-4 weeks after an ankle break my leg muscles had shrunk and strength decreased noticably
c) He's got a lot of educational catching up to do. Hopefully he worked as a carpenter, plumber, or some other job where old skills are still useful with some upgrading (if he was into computers 19 years ago he's gonna be way behind)
d) Likely there's still a bit of other funkiness with his body after 19 years and major brain damage.
e) Scientists are going to poke and prod him to research this regeneration.
On the plus side:
a) Medicine should be a bit better than it was then
b) Technology in many cases will be pretty cool. Even if he's bedridden for a long time it'll likely be a wonder for him to try out a modern console
c) That first post-vegetitive shower is going to be really nice
d) Add to that a real dinner after being on hospital food and drips for 19 years...
e) Somebody with a brain that regenerates that well will be of interest to science, which is annoying but possibly good for paying the bills.
Now there is this case of a man who was declared by experts to be in a permanent minimally-conscious state waking up after 19 years. Makes me wonder if letting treatment continue wouldn't be such a bad idea. What if you got a second chance to live?
Blow that for a game of soldiers. If I woke up after 19 years in a coma, my first question would be why didn't someone hadn't pulled the plug/ removed the tube yet.
A full recovery never happens, except in movies. People don't just wake up from a coma. The damage affects them for the rest of their lives. After 19 years, the person you knew would be a stranger to you anyway, and there's not much of that person left.
I wouldn't want anyone close to me to waste their lives praying over a vegetable for 19 years in the hope that a half-me will wake up to be taken care of in much the same way. There comes a point when modern medicine stops saving people's lives and is simply prolonging suffering, both for the victim and their family. It's not easy to gauge when that line gets crossed, but when it has been, its time to let go.
May the Maths Be with you!
Actually small children can have at least half of their brain removed and still function normally in later life. It's pretty amazing! I once read about a man who had had to take a brain scan. The scan revealed that the only brain tissue he had, only covered the inner surface of his skull, apparently he was born like that, and he functioned normally. Of course I cannot find any documentation about it now, but the link I've provided describes a "normal" procedure. It can cure rare epeleptic disorders and other things. ;)
Mind boggling
Any technology distinguishable from magic, is insufficiently advanced.
"I used the thing the brain was the most amazing organ in the body. Then I realized, well, look what's telling me that!"
What if I do the same thing, and I do get different results?
I saw a TV show about this guy some time ago (PBS? Discovery? National Geographic?). Yes, he is awake, but the poor guy is in very bad shape. He has very limited use of his body; his brain is unable to store any new information for more than a few seconds; and his frontal lobe is basically gone so he has no sense of boundaries when communicating with people. His 20-year old daughter is his primary caretaker, and since he thinks he's a 19 year-old and is unable to remember that she is his daughter, he keeps asking her for sexual favors and groping her any chance he has. He is also very verbally abusive towards her and pretty much everyone else.
Yes, he's no longer in a coma, but he is far from functional.
I couldn't find the actual published study that the New Scientist article (sort of) referenced (maybe it hasn't been accepted for publication yet?). However, I did find this article by the auther mentioned, which is a very readable look at a few cases of brain-damaged patients (including an explanation as to why Terry Schaivo isn't in the same category at all). Unfortunately it doesn't go very in depth into the details of how Willis' brain rewired itself, which I was interested in. Still, very informative reading.
the young woman who was, like this gentleman, in what many people called a "persistent vegetative state".
While Schiavo was in a vegetative state and had no hope for recovery, this man was in a minimally conscious state. If this man had been in a persistent vegetative state, he would not be recovering (albeit very slowly and with little hope of his former abilities) today. It is a significant mistake to equate these two states.
Would there ever be a chance S[c]hiavo could've recovered like this man did?
No.
From TFA: a difficult process considering he believed himself to be 19, and that Ronald Reagan was still president.
...)
So this guy's in coma for 19 years, and he wakes up, and he asks, "How's President Reagan doing?" And the doctor says, "Sir, Reagan is dead." And the guy says, "Oh God, no, that means Bush is President!"
(The original was Eisenhower and Nixon. The more things change
The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
Somehow he has cobbled together a random assortment of other brainwaves into a working mind.
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Again, this is the problem when people use grand generalizations about complex things like the brain without knowing specifically what they are talking about. Hemispheres have basic redundancies built into their structures. That's just not the same thing as removing key structures entirely, from both hemispheres.
I guess it depends on what kind of psychic you're talking about... but I would assume the ability to recieve and broadcast... In which case it would be the perfect cover. Who's going to suspect the guy in the almost-coma of being the one secretly controlling the world, eh?
Have you been touched by his noodly appendage?
Terry woke up three years ago, and the story was rather widely reported back then. In fact, Terri Schiavo has, in her time, often been compared to Terry - in fact, their medical cases share almost no similarities.
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The story itself has woken up in 2006, for reasons unknown. You can find a better article than the one of the front page at http://www.nature.com/news/2006/060703/full/06070
This everything2 article is probably the best I found about Terry, including updates from 2004: http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=14758
Also, some updates on the family's fight with health services, from 2005: http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2005/6/2
I'd suggest 6th grade English, in your case.