Owen, Dr. Adrian: In a Coma and Conscious: Communicating with the Comatose
Approximately twenty percent of the people who are motionless and locked into a deep coma, wholly unable to move or respond, have a conscious awareness. This conscious awareness may be determined with the use of Functional magnetic resonance imaging, commonly called fMRI. This imaging reveals the increased blood flow to specific areas of the brain when a person focuses on a certain idea or image.
In this program we visit with Adrian Owen, Ph.D., author of “Into the Gray Zone: A Neuroscientist Explores the Border Between Life and Death.” Dr. Owen who thoroughly enjoys neurobiology and his rock and roll band began to develop imaging techniques allowing a conscious person locked in a coma to respond yes or no, to a given question. Owen is currently the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience and Imaging at the Brain and Mind Institute, of Western University in London, Ontario, Canada.
As part of our continuing series on dementia, we visited with Dr. Owen from his office in London, Ontario Canada, June 28, 2017. We began when I asked him to explain the difference between magnetic resonance imaging and functional magnetic resonance imaging.
The book Adrian Owen recommends is “The Selfish Gene,” by Richard Dawkins.
For more information about Dr. Adrian Owen visit his website: http://www.owenlab.uwo.ca/
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