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SecretMethod70 · 02-17-2010, 02:28 AM

Doubts about 'coma man' were spot on - Short Sharp Science - New Scientist

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Doubts about 'coma man' were spot on
Andy Coghlan, reporter

Remember Rom Houben, the man thought to be in a vegetative state, who turned out to have been fully conscious and "locked in" for more than 20 years? It has now emerged that doubts that he was really communicating using residual movement in his finger and a touchscreen were spot on.

"Powerlessness. Utter powerlessness. At first I was angry, then I learned to live with it."

That's what Houben, brain damaged in a car accident in 1983, apparently told the world by communicating via a computer touch-screen, at least according to the original report of Houben's story in Der Spiegel in November 2009.
The story attracted huge media attention, which quickly turned sour when several videos of Houben typing at the screen prompted commentators to cry foul. They pointed out that the speed of the typing, and the fact that Houben is not even looking at the keyboard at various points in the footage, suggested it was in fact the person holding his finger who was behind the messages.

Now, according to a follow-up article in Der Spiegel, it seems these suspicions have been borne out. The magazine reports that Steven Laureys of the University of Liège in Belgium, who first diagnosed Houben as conscious, but dissociated himself from the communication fiasco, has carried out subsequent tests to see if Houben is capable of this kind of communication. He concludes that the speech therapist holding Houben's finger was in fact the source of the messages.

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"The tests determined that he doesn't have enough strength and muscle control in his right arm to operate the keyboard. In her effort to help the patient express himself, it would seem that the speech therapist had unwittingly assumed control. This kind of self-deception happens all the time when this method -- known as 'facilitated communication' -- is used."

According to Der Spiegel, Houben failed to pass a 15-item test administered by Laureys. As Houben saw or heard reference to 15 items, he was asked to use his single, incompletely paralysed finger to press the corresponding word on the touch screen - without the help of the speech therapist. But he failed on every item. To make sure the test was fair, Laureys gave the same test to another, impaired patient, who successfully completed the test.

Where does this leave Houben? According to Der Spiegel, because of images taken of his brain activity that reveal it is behaving only slightly differently from that of a healthy brain, "researchers are fairly certain that Houben is conscious".

How to communicate with him is another matter. Earlier this month, Laureys, together with researchers at the University of Cambridge revealed a brain imaging technique that allowed them to converse with a paralysed man previously thought to be in a vegetative state. But Der Spiegel reports that the procedure is "entirely unsuitable" for Houben: "One attempt ended without usable results because spasms make it nearly impossible for Houben to hold his head still."