adrian owen

Recovery = Probably Not a Persistent Vegetative State

purepedantry | March 6, 2009

I caught this story (with an accompanying video) over at Mind Hacks and Neuron Culture about this poor woman from the UK who fell unconscious from a viral infection in her brain stem. Using fMRI, a doctor at Cambridge named Adrian Owen showed that she still had residual brain functions such as response to light. The woman has since recovered from her condition and can interact, though she still faces substantial impairment. The thing is that people are continuing to use the term persistent vegetative state to describe her condition. I think this is misusing the term. A better description…

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