Patient Revives After 19 Years By Rewiring Brain 419
dylanduck writes "A study of the recovery of a man who spent 19 years in a minimally conscious state has revealed the likely cause of his regained consciousness - his brain rewired itself around the injured areas into totally novel structures. It suggests the human brain shows far greater potential for recovery and regeneration then ever suspected." From the article: "There were ... significant changes between scans taken just two months after the recovery, and the most recent, at 18 months. Some of the new pathways had receded again, while others seem to have strengthened and taken over as Wallis continued to improve."
Re:I, for one... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Terri Schiavo... (Score:2, Insightful)
let me guess... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:19 years? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:19 years? (Score:2, Insightful)
Thanks! It makes more sense now.... But, 19 years.... Laying down.... Alone.... I couldn't do it!
You've just made a pretty strong argument for setting up an advance directive, or at least talking your wishes over with someone you trust. An advance directive is a very unpleasant document because it forces you to think unpleasant thoughts. (Do I want to receive nutrition and hydration, or would I rather die quicker of thirst?) But it does get the job done in the event you can't speak for yourself.
The man described in the article has lost those 19 years. Hopefully he'll recover sufficiently to find some meaning, purpose, and enjoyment in the remainder of his life.
Great potential for recovery? (Score:3, Insightful)
Hardly. This took 19 YEARS. Thats hardly what I'd call potential. Yes its surprising
but given that time period who knows what alive but dormant neurons will do on their
own. This is unlikely to be an evolved response since in the wild a creature with this
level of brain damage would be lucky to survive 19 hours.
Re:Terri Schiavo... (Score:5, Insightful)
It's also important to remember that the brain is not ALL just undifferentiated mush, but has all sort of specialized areas that cannot be replaced by other specialized areas. The guy in this article has damage to some of those areas, and more importantly ther breaking of important connections BETWEEN areas, but not a total loss of any area: they still had functioning sections that rewired and worked overtime to compensate. However, if both of your hippocampi die, it's not like your amygdala is suddenly going to switch over and start performing their functions.
This case has been paraded around because of the Schiavo case, but in doing so its only illuminated how medically ignorant some people are: they don't care about the specifics, or learning about how the brain works, and they lump together uncertainties about one area of knowledge about the brain (its ability to create new connections to repair damage, which contrary to the sort of hyperbolic claims of the article, we've always known is pretty plastic and this is just an extreme example) and try to pretend that raise questions about a completely different area of knowledge: all without acknowledging that there are any key differences or even thinking about them.
Re:This is why I'm against organ transplants (Score:5, Insightful)
But I agree it would be pretty shitty to wake up and find half your body gone to organ donation. The recent successful face transplant in France used part of the face of a brain dead patient. Imagine waking up to be told you'd had your face removed and given to someone else!
Re:We can rebuild him.... (Score:3, Insightful)
Medical bill (Score:5, Insightful)
a) When he looks into a mirror his face will be 19 years older... from 19 to 38 kinda sucks
b) His muscle mass will be negligable. After being in a cast for only 3-4 weeks after an ankle break my leg muscles had shrunk and strength decreased noticably
c) He's got a lot of educational catching up to do. Hopefully he worked as a carpenter, plumber, or some other job where old skills are still useful with some upgrading (if he was into computers 19 years ago he's gonna be way behind)
d) Likely there's still a bit of other funkiness with his body after 19 years and major brain damage.
e) Scientists are going to poke and prod him to research this regeneration.
On the plus side:
a) Medicine should be a bit better than it was then
b) Technology in many cases will be pretty cool. Even if he's bedridden for a long time it'll likely be a wonder for him to try out a modern console
c) That first post-vegetitive shower is going to be really nice
d) Add to that a real dinner after being on hospital food and drips for 19 years...
e) Somebody with a brain that regenerates that well will be of interest to science, which is annoying but possibly good for paying the bills.
Re:Great potential for recovery? (Score:2, Insightful)
We are now aware that severly damaged brains can excecute a mechanism to re-wire around the damage with remarkable results.
While it is clear that this is obviously a rare phenomenon, it can happen. Yes, it took 19 years. But how can anyone know when the repair process started and how it was initiated?
Perhaps this is due to a rare genetic mutation. But the fact is, we can now pursue, discover and refine the process. Now that sounds like potential to me.
This is unlikely to be an evolved response since in the wild a creature with this level of brain damage would be lucky to survive 19 hours.
Evolution is a process of random genetic mutations that tend stick around because they just so happen to benefit a species. Likewise, evolution can just as easily produce genetic defects that kill the creature or reduce it to an undesirable mate. Sometimes...quite often actually, a negative gene survives and spreads through a population. This can lead to the evolution of a species that becomes inferior to what it once was. This can kill off entire species. There is no such thing as de-evolving, it's all one and the same.
How many unfortunate genetic traits have spread throught the human population over the last 10,000 years or so? Alot. How many benificial? Alot. How many pointless benign mutations? Alot.
For modern humans, this sounds like a benificial mutation to me. Now we just need to identify and master it, taking control of evolution.
Re:At the risk of fanning a fire... (Score:5, Insightful)
Blow that for a game of soldiers. If I woke up after 19 years in a coma, my first question would be why didn't someone hadn't pulled the plug/ removed the tube yet.
A full recovery never happens, except in movies. People don't just wake up from a coma. The damage affects them for the rest of their lives. After 19 years, the person you knew would be a stranger to you anyway, and there's not much of that person left.
I wouldn't want anyone close to me to waste their lives praying over a vegetable for 19 years in the hope that a half-me will wake up to be taken care of in much the same way. There comes a point when modern medicine stops saving people's lives and is simply prolonging suffering, both for the victim and their family. It's not easy to gauge when that line gets crossed, but when it has been, its time to let go.
Re:This is why I'm against organ transplants (Score:3, Insightful)
Lol! If half your body is gone you'd be pretty much 110% dead wouldn't you? And it's not like they would bother to keep the life support running after taking your organs either (or face for that matter).
/greger
Re: Dude, where's my hemisphere? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Neuronal remodeling (Score:5, Insightful)
Your friend's case is sort of like spontaneously repairing a cut trace on the motherboard of a computer. This case is more like the extra floating point unit in the processor reconfiguring itself to replace a damaged instruction decoder.
Re:We can rebuild him.... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: Dude, where's my hemisphere? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:19 years? (Score:3, Insightful)
props to William Goldman
Re:Please note... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Terri Schiavo... (Score:3, Insightful)
Right, it makes a lot of sense to stop having a society until every disease has been cured. Brilliant, just brilliant.
Re:Please note... (Score:3, Insightful)