I’ve always wondered what was really going on while someone was in a coma and if there was a way to wake them up. A way that was unusual, that no one else had tried before. That regular doctors would never think to try. Well, as it turns out there may be. At least when it comes to patients in a minimally conscious state. Thanks to our good friend ultrasound.
Science Alert explains:
“Scientists have reported finding some success in using low intensity, focused ultrasound to ‘jumpstart’ parts of the brains of people in coma-like conditions, reawakening certain functions in patients who had previously been in a ‘minimally conscious state’ (MCS).
The method uses ultrasound stimulation to excite the neurons in the thalamus, a processing hub for the whole brain, and a region that’s known to be weaker after a coma. Two 10-minute treatment sessions were given to three MCS patients, with a week between each session.
While one patient showed no response, researchers observed significant improvements in the other two patients. The research builds on similar findings from 2016, involving one patient who was recovering from surgery and a medically induced coma. In the new study, the coma-like states had lasted much longer.
A person in a minimally conscious state may show clear but subtle or inconsistent signs of consciousnesses. These signs, like blinking on command or wakefulness, are generally sustained enough that they aren’t seen as reflexive behaviours, and they help to differentiate MCS from comas or vegetative states.
‘I consider this new result much more significant because these chronic patients were much less likely to recover spontaneously than the acute patient we treated in 2016 – and any recovery typically occurs slowly over several months and more typically years, not over days and weeks, as we show,’ says neuroscientist Martin Monti, from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).”
All in all, a promising start to this research. Hopefully it continues to progress and can eventually be used to treat people in full comas or vegetative states.
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