British scientists have reached into the shuttered world of a "lost" brain-damaged patient and communicated with him via his thoughts. Skip related content

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Patient in vegetative state responds to questions

The 29-year-old Belgian was able to answer "yes" and "no" to questions by conjuring up imaginary scenes while having his brain scanned.

Before the extraordinary experiment the man, who suffered a severe head injury in a road accident in 2003, had shown no sign of being aware of the outside world.

Five years ago he was presumed to have slipped from a coma to a vegetative state, but researchers now know that diagnosis was wrong, after he was able to respond to questions about his life as scientists monitored activity in his brain.

On one occasion he was asked "is your father's name Alexander?" and correctly answered "yes" by imagining a tennis scene. When he was asked "is your father's name Thomas?" he answered "no" by thinking about roaming streets or walking around the house.

The patient responded accurately to five out of six autobiographical questions posed by the scientists.

Scientists admit to being "astonished" by the result, which has enormous implications for the care and treatment of vegetative patients.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/4/20100204/tuk-patient-in-vegetative-state-responds-dba1618.html

Once again hats off to Science, proving there is room for development into how our lives function and pushing the previously unthought of boundries of life.