DEACON FOR LIFE

Were there to be no support in the whole history of ethical and moral thought, were there no acknowledged confirmation from medical science, were the history of legal opinion to the contrary, we would still have to conclude on the basis of God's Holy Word that the unborn child is a person in the sight of God. He is protected by the sanctity of life graciously given to each individual by the Creator, Who alone places His image upon man and grants them any right to life which they have.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

PVS Patients May Soon Be Able to Communicate via Computer

"Vegetative State

" Patients May Soon Be Able to Communicate

October 7, 2010 (PhysOrg.com)

Researchers from Cambridge University in the UK have been able to communicate with brain-injured patients in "locked states" commonly referred to as persistent vegetative states (PVS). They predict such patients will soon be able to communicate and perhaps even move themselves around in motorized wheelchairs.

Neuroscientist Dr. Adrian Owen and colleagues used electroencephalography (EEG) monitors connected to 128 electrodes in a cap placed on the heads of brain injured patients, and were able to understand responses from them.

Owen thinks a similar system connected to a computer will be able to decode messages from their brains and allow them to communicate via a voice synthesizer and even control a motorized wheelchair.

These systems could be available within a decade.

(continue reading...)