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."
So, did he get X-ray vision? (Score:5, Funny)
Well, it IS possible! Right?
Re:So, did he get X-ray vision? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:So, did he get X-ray vision? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:So, did he get X-ray vision? (Score:5, Funny)
If surviving a period makes you better, that would explain women.
Re:So, did he get X-ray vision? (Score:4, Funny)
Apparently the lesson hasn't quite sunk in yet...
Re:So, did he get X-ray vision? (Score:2, Informative)
Damn typical slashdot stories (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Damn typical slashdot stories (Score:5, Funny)
Obligatory Emo Phillips (Score:4, Funny)
Please note... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Please note... (Score:2)
Absolute myth. Unless you are in management.
Re:Nope. (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Please note... (Score:4, Interesting)
Not to harsh on you (especially since you wrote in at 9am), but I'd love it if the 'we only use 10% of our brains' meme would die, die, die!!!! already. It's not even superficially true; what is true is that a very large part of the brain structure is used for wiring instead of for information storage, but how would one get a functional device if all it had was memory and no processing circuits? The structure itself, one might imagine, is where the the lower order (and probably some higher order) information processing algorithms are 'stored'; that these structures only take up approximately 90% of the total machine is astonishing.
Re:Please note... (Score:2)
Undoubtedly. Just nowhere near 90%. Like I said, more harshing on the meme than on you. I think (imho, ianad, mlans) that the 'untapped potential' of human brains lies in the the plasticisty and complexity of that 90% that deals with forming the data correlation and calculation algorithms. The existence of savants shows us the tantalizing possibilities in those areas, the periphery of what sorts of wirings are possible in the human brain.
Re:Please note... (Score:5, Informative)
See http://www.snopes.com/science/stats/10percnt.htm [snopes.com] for more info.
Re:Please note... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Please note... (Score:3, Insightful)
Yeah but can he see the future? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Yeah but can he see the future? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Yeah but can he see the future? (Score:4, Funny)
Umm... psychic? (Score:4, Funny)
I guess it depends on what kind of psychic you're talking about... but I would assume the ability to recieve and broadcast... In which case it would be the perfect cover. Who's going to suspect the guy in the almost-coma of being the one secretly controlling the world, eh?
Most interesting... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Most interesting... (Score:2)
Re:Most interesting... (Score:2, Funny)
Terri Schiavo... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Terri Schiavo... (Score:5, Informative)
Thanks for taking one for team and saying what everyone else was thinking. But just in case anyone is really thinking there's an important parallel there or anything, remember that her case was substantially different: most of her brain was literally dead and gone - actually a mush of fluid. Rewiring "around" an injured area (as in the case cited) depends upon having surrounding brain material that's still viable. She was coasting on real low-level left-overs, and there simply wasn't a platform for that sort of recovery.
Re:Terri Schiavo... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Terri Schiavo... (Score:2)
Re:Terri Schiavo... (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Terri Schiavo... (Score:5, Informative)
A hemispherectomy removes up to half of the cerebrum. To be technically alive you only need an operating brain stem. The brain stem isn't plastic though -- it won't rewire itself to make you conscious again. Only the cerebrum can do that.
So the difference between Terri Schiavo and this guy is that Ms. Schiavo had a devastated cerebrum and enough brian stem left to keep her sort of alive. This guy had some localized damage that happened to be in a critical area.
Re:Terri Schiavo... (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Terri Schiavo... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Terri Schiavo... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Terri Schiavo... (Score:2)
You are right in that Terri's case was substantially different.
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: Dude, where's my hemisphere? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: Dude, where's my hemisphere? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: Dude, where's my hemisphere? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Terri Schiavo... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Terri Schiavo... (Score:3, Informative)
The irrational (yet semi-logical) response to that statement would be: Maybe that's because they didn't wait long enough in Mrs. Schiavo's case.
I know, her brain was part mush, but that really wasn't the point as far as the uber-fundies were concerned. They (and certain moran Senators/Congressmen) claim she was not in a veggie
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:Terri Schiavo... (Score:2)
Someone has to break the news (Score:3, Funny)
Yes! (Score:5, Funny)
Neuronal remodeling (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Neuronal remodeling (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
Hmm... (Score:3, Funny)
Hope for Earth's lowest? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Hope for Earth's lowest? (Score:2)
Limiting factors in rewiring rates? (Score:4, Interesting)
We can rebuild him.... (Score:4, Interesting)
Except for Rip Van Winkle, I don't think that a 19 year period of repair and adaption would really lend itself to survival. Not to say that this isn't miraculous, but, I'm sure the recovery time will be significant.
Besides, would you really want to wake up 20 years older, with years of rehabilitation to look forward to? I would be more concerned with the ethics of keeping someone alive for that long.
Re:We can rebuild him.... (Score:5, Informative)
He's four years old now, and I would love if my son, at any age, woke up one day and started to learn the things he's missed (talking, crawling and then walking, etc). My wife and I read a lot about brain injury and the possibility of his recovery. The nature of his injury always gives me hope that because the damaged areas are so small, it may be easier for his brain to compensate.
Unfortunately, because of the state of medical research in the USA (stem cell especially), My family is probably going to have to travel to another country to take advantage of any treatments that may be developed in the next few years.
Re:We can rebuild him.... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:We can rebuild him.... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:We can rebuild him.... (Score:3, Interesting)
After he was born, he fought so hard to stay alive there was no way we would not honor his will to live. He stayed in the hospital for seven months, had many severe complications, but each time recovered by what can only be described as sheer determination to live
TFA: Rip Van Winkle (Score:4, Interesting)
I was in a real bad wreck in 1976, my brain hardly worked for a year or more, but I got better. I wonder what a scan of it would look like? Would it be wierdly wired like this guy's?
Few people I know would be surprised to find my brain was wired wierd.
Since then, the thought has occurred to me that I could have actually gone into a coma and the last forty years could have been a dream. But then, any of you could have had an accident and not know it, and be dreaming this. So there's little point in not behaving as if reality is real, especially considering the incredibly high probability that this IS real.
I wonder if he dreamed?
Re:TFA: Rip Van Winkle (Score:2)
FTA, he remembers his life before the accident, but does not remember anything of the last ~20 years. Maybe he did dream and can't remember, but I guess doctors would have noticed some brain activity before.
Oblig. Simpsons (Score:5, Funny)
NEWSIE:
Tonight, on Eyewitness News: a man who's been in a coma for 19 years wakes up.
MAN:
Do Sonny and Cher still have that stupid show?
NEWSIE:
No, uh, she won an Oscar, and he's a Congressman.
MAN:
Good night! [Turns over and dies.]
Reminds me of an update to an old joke (Score:4, Funny)
So this guy's in coma for 19 years, and he wakes up, and he asks, "How's President Reagan doing?" And the doctor says, "Sir, Reagan is dead." And the guy says, "Oh God, no, that means Bush is President!"
(The original was Eisenhower and Nixon. The more things change
let me guess... (Score:2, Insightful)
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.
This is why I'm against organ transplants (Score:2, Interesting)
Of course the other reason I'm against organ transplants is that the Chinese harvest organs from prisoners.
Anyway, staying on topic, this kind of thing happens too often
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: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
The same thing... (Score:2)
"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."
Poor guy (Score:4, Interesting)
I mean think about it, last time he was awake was in 1987. The world has changed ALOT since then... I wonder how I'd feel?
"Internet? What's that? Computers, those are the huge things that big businesses and the government use, right?"
Re:Poor guy (Score:5, Funny)
El bulto (Score:5, Interesting)
It was called "El bulto" [imdb.com] (the bag). Very interesting movie.
The brain is amazing, the younger the better (Score:4, Interesting)
Mind boggling
Google search (Score:3, Interesting)
TV Show? (Score:5, Interesting)
Yes, he's no longer in a coma, but he is far from functional.
More information (Score:3, Informative)
Delta brain wave (Score:4, Funny)
There is more to the story of Terry Wallis (Score:5, Informative)
The story itself has woken up in 2006, for reasons unknown. You can find a better article than the one of the front page at http://www.nature.com/news/2006/060703/full/06070
This everything2 article is probably the best I found about Terry, including updates from 2004: http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=14758
Also, some updates on the family's fight with health services, from 2005: http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2005/6/2
Re:I, for one... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I, for one... (Score:3, Funny)
I for one welcome our new classic overlords.
Re:I, for one... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:I, for one... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Patent Reviews? (Score:3, Funny)
*slowly and uneasily raises right hand*
Re:Rewiring speed up (Score:2)
Re:Rewiring speed up (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Rewiring speed up (Score:2)
Re:19 years? (Score:3, Informative)
It appears that he was conscious of his surroundings, but not interacting with them (didn't move or speak), however he didn't reach brain death [wikipedia.org] because he retained minimal consciousness.
IANAD by the way.
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
Re:19 years? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:19 years? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:19 years? (Score:2)
Looks like it was a good enough reason.
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:19 years? (Score:3, Insightful)
props to William Goldman
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:At the risk of fanning a fire... (Score:3, Informative)
I've seen this man on television a year or two ago. (This was before the recovery this article is talking about.) His speech was slurred rather badly and he had trouble putting sentences together. I first read about him on Slashdot and thought "Wow, this
Maybe that's your view on it ? (Score:3)
Living in this society is a very depressing thing; for sure if you are thrown 19 years further in life; although; it might be a nice view for him, depending on how he will think and develop; so why not give this guy a cha
Re:At the risk of fanning a fire... (Score:5, Informative)
While Schiavo was in a vegetative state and had no hope for recovery, this man was in a minimally conscious state. If this man had been in a persistent vegetative state, he would not be recovering (albeit very slowly and with little hope of his former abilities) today. It is a significant mistake to equate these two states.
Would there ever be a chance S[c]hiavo could've recovered like this man did?
No.
Re:what exactly (Score:2, Funny)
Re:TERRI SCHIAVO (December 3, 1963 - March 31, 200 (Score:5, Informative)
Re:TERRI SCHIAVO (December 3, 1963 - March 31, 200 (Score:5, Funny)
You, sir, or madam, are embarrasingly stupid.
Re:TERRI SCHIAVO (December 3, 1963 - March 31, 200 (Score:3, Informative)
How about you go with the autopsy?
The brain itself weighed 615 g, only half the weight expected for a female of her age, height, and weight. Microscopic examination revealed extensive damage to nearly all brain regions, including the cerebral cortex, the thalami, the basal gan
Re:That sucks (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Yeah, that's the point... (Score:3, Interesting)
Yeah, that was my feeling. When a relative of mine was in a similair state a number of years back, all the doctors that we talked to pretty much said the same thing - coming back from a coma was possible, although very rare if they didn't wake up within a few months. But at a certa