(ScienceAlert) Researchers from University of Cambridge in the UK have identified hidden networks in vegetative patients that could support consciousness, even when a patient appear to be unresponsive.
There’s been a lot of interest lately into how much patients in vegetative states, such as comas, are aware of their surroundings. Recently, research involving functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanning has shown that even patients who are unable to respond or move are able to carry out mental tasks, such as imagining playing a game of tennis.
Now the team of scientists have used high-density electroencephalographs (EEG) and mathematics known as “graph theory” to study the networks of activity in the brains of 32 patients who have been diagnosed as being in a vegetative state.
