An amazing story on the Sky News website this morning - a woman from Plymouth in England who suffered from migraines suddenly started talking in a different accent. Her normal voice would have sounded a bit like Mike Davis's accent, but now she sounds like she has a mix between a Chinese and Eastern European accent. Check out the story and video here.
There have been only 60 recorded cases of Foreign Accent Syndrome, the first being a Norwegian woman who suffered head injuries during an air raid during WWII and subsequently started speaking with a German accent (people in her town then suspected her of being a spy).
Showing posts with label neuroscience. Show all posts
Showing posts with label neuroscience. Show all posts
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Communicating with the unconscious
Expanding upon Mr D's post last week (click here for the story), the New York Times have posted a video that explores this idea further.
http://video.nytimes.com/video/2010/02/04/science/1247466860136/communicating-with-the-unconscious.html
http://video.nytimes.com/video/2010/02/04/science/1247466860136/communicating-with-the-unconscious.html
Friday, February 5, 2010
Think tennis for yes, home for no: how doctors helped man in vegetative state
The following story was in today's Guardian newspaper:
For seven years the man lay in a hospital bed, showing no signs of consciousness since sustaining a traumatic brain injury in a car accident. His doctors were convinced he was in a vegetative state. Until now.
To the astonishment of his medical team, the patient has been able to communicate with the outside world after scientists worked out, in effect, a way to read his thoughts.
They devised a technique to enable the man, now 29, to answer yes and no to simple questions through the use of a hi-tech scanner, monitoring his brain activity.
To answer yes, he was told to think of playing tennis, a motor activity. To answer no, he was told to think of wandering from room to room in his home, visualising everything he would expect to see there, creating activity in the part of the brain governing spatial awareness.
His doctors were amazed when the patient gave the correct answers to a series of questions about his family. The experiment will fuel the controversy of when a patient should have life support removed.
It also raises the prospect of some form of communication with those who have been shut off from life, perhaps for years. To read the rest of the story, click here
For seven years the man lay in a hospital bed, showing no signs of consciousness since sustaining a traumatic brain injury in a car accident. His doctors were convinced he was in a vegetative state. Until now.
To the astonishment of his medical team, the patient has been able to communicate with the outside world after scientists worked out, in effect, a way to read his thoughts.
They devised a technique to enable the man, now 29, to answer yes and no to simple questions through the use of a hi-tech scanner, monitoring his brain activity.
To answer yes, he was told to think of playing tennis, a motor activity. To answer no, he was told to think of wandering from room to room in his home, visualising everything he would expect to see there, creating activity in the part of the brain governing spatial awareness.
His doctors were amazed when the patient gave the correct answers to a series of questions about his family. The experiment will fuel the controversy of when a patient should have life support removed.
It also raises the prospect of some form of communication with those who have been shut off from life, perhaps for years. To read the rest of the story, click here
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