Vegetative man tells doctors ‘I’m not in pain’ via MRI communication

[cthulu2016]

28. I read the study, then read your link

His take seems a good one.

The study itself seemed to overstate the results in a way that missed the chief significance of what was being done—as a diagnostic toll, rather than a reliable communication tool.

Of the 5 positive response patients in the study, three of them were not in a persistent vegetative state, despite having been given that diagnosis previously.

The study's conclusion should, it seems to me, have not been "Hey, we can communicate with people in a persistent vegetative state." The study does not make that case strongly enough to warrant such a top-line conclusion.

It should have been, "Hey, not everyone's diagnosis of being in a PVS is correct, and this MRI technique can improve the quality of diagnosis." The study does suggest that quite strongly.

There are only two actual PVS communicators in the study and the noise and subjectivity factors are significant. Skepticism is indicated. (Were the interpretations of MRI activity blind? They said the interpreters didn't know the answers, but if they knew when the questions were being asked that is plenty of room for error. I would hope that someone (or ones) reviewed the MRI data record over an hour or half hour truly blind, after the fact, to find all significant activity levels, and then check for correlation with the questions.

Did the detected reactions only happen in response to questions?

I am surprised there wasn't more about the relative likelihood that someone in a PVS would understand spoken language.

Anyway, the cases of MRI activity leading to re-examination and discovery that the patient was not PVS at that time are quite striking.

One wishes they had conducted the same level of re-examination of all the patients. Perhaps there were non-communicators who were also over-diagnosed, but lacked the language ability, or other necessary function, to deal with the specific test.