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.

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