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Patient "Roused From Coma" By a Magnetic Therapy
missb writes "Could the gentle currents from a fluctuating magnetic field be used to reverse the effects of traumatic brain injury? New Scientist reports on a patient in the US who was in a coma-like state, but can now speak very simple words after being given transcranial magnetic stimulation. This is the first time TMS has been used as a therapy to try and rouse a patient out of a coma."
How about applying your logic to this:
1. We compressed some plutonium with conventional explosives at a test site in the desert.
2. Coincidentally, a really large explosion occured, including large release of radiation.
Could it be that they are related ? I dunno....
Correlation implies either a causal relationship or a causal relationship with a third factor. In many cases the latter is MORE interesting than the former.
What TFA should have to write is that an anecdote does not equal data, never mind correlation.
If you give TMS to a hundred patients, three of whom would be expected to wake up naturally, and 90 of them actually wake up, you've got something worth investigating further. If you give it to one patient who wakes up you've got nothing but an interesting story.
Transcranial magnetic stimulation absolutely has a working scientific model behind it. Remember, your neurons are sensitive to electric potentials. Since electricity and magnetism are essentially the same thing, fluctuating magnetic fields can change those potentials causing the neurons to fire. This isn't late night QVC magnetic therapy bracelets we're talking about here, it's cutting edge neuroscience.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
There is always a big reflex of people crying 'psuedo-science' around here whenever they hear about magenetism, especially in relationship to health.
Yeah, magnetic and weak-current electrical stimulation of the brain is definitely cutting-neuroscience and these effects on the brain have been studied for years.
The lesson here: don't judge a book by its cover.
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When are people going to realize that the mind control people moved underground because they found that from underneath, tinfoil hats make nice parabolic reflectors?
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