Dr Adrian Owen

Adrian Owen is a British scientist who for the last 20 years has been researching what level of consciousness some patients who appear to be in a completely vegetative state actually have.

Owen and his team have developed ever more sophisticated methods of reaching some patients who appear vegetative, enabling them most recently to give basic yes and no answers to questions posed by using their brain alone. When one patient completely defied the odds and recovered to a significant extent, he was able to feed back to the team that he had been "locked in" and completely aware of everything that had been going on around him, despite medically on paper being determined to be vegetative and only minimally conscious. He also demonstrated how imperfect their current tests are, as in some of them his results of consciousness were inconclusive, when clearly he had been conscious throughout.

It's a fascinating read, and exciting to think that in 20 years time science will most likely have advanced to the point where much more sophisticated brain reading can be done with such patients in a way that will properly improve their lives. Sadly, for those left vegetative today through illness or accident, even if they are lucky enough to be scanned by Owen's team in Canada, there is little more they can do beyond identifying that the person is more conscious than previously thought. They are still locked inside their bodies, and science has not yet developed to the extent where these results can be used to make real improvements to their lives.

But someday it will. For their families, it gives hope that they are aware of what is going on around them and that one day they might be more fully reached.

4 stars - an interesting and accessible read into an area of advancement in brain science.… (meer)