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+--- Thread: New test can detect “hidden consciousness” in coma patients (/thread-7276.html)
New test can detect “hidden consciousness” in coma patients - C C - Jun 27, 2019
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/2019/06/26/new-test-can-detect-hidden-consciousness-in-coma-patients/
EXCERPT: . . . a team of researchers at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center say a tool that’s readily available in nearly all hospitals around the world was effective in spotting signs of “hidden consciousness” in comatose patients. These subtle patterns in brain activity are signals that the person is aware but is physically unable to show it.
A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that an electroencephalogram (EEG), a machine that detects electrical activity in the brain, could find hints of hidden consciousness in one of seven people just days after a serious brain injury. And in patient follow-ups a year later, researchers say people who initially showed signs of hidden consciousness were more likely to recover.
[...] Consciousness, and how the brain creates it, is far from settled. Nevertheless, hidden consciousness is a growing field of interest among researchers. At least one study has found that a segment of patients who were outwardly vegetative had brain activity and connectedness similar to that of healthy, normal adults. But for some reason, they aren’t able to wake up. Tests for these invisible signs of consciousness could help doctors better direct their care in the future.
If one thing is clear, it’s that hidden forms of cognition are strong predictors of recovery. But researchers haven’t settled on the best way to detect this gray area of consciousness in clinical settings. (MORE - details)
RE: New test can detect “hidden consciousness” in coma patients - Zinjanthropos - Jun 27, 2019
If consciousness has been found then it shouldn’t be considered hidden any longer. One of two things just happened. If you believe the article, consciousness is either contained within the brain or somehow researchers have managed a connection between the physical and metaphysical residence of consciousness or should I say the elusive Universal Consciousness. Could be a boon for the metaphysical thinkers.
RE: New test can detect “hidden consciousness” in coma patients - C C - Jun 27, 2019
(Jun 27, 2019 01:20 PM)Zinjanthropos Wrote: If consciousness has been found then it shouldn’t be considered hidden any longer. One of two things just happened. If you believe the article, consciousness is either contained within the brain or somehow researchers have managed a connection between the physical and metaphysical residence of consciousness or should I say the elusive Universal Consciousness. Could be a boon for the metaphysical thinkers.
"Hidden" with respect to maybe no longer pulling the plug on certain comatose patients because physicians classify them as brain-dead (no relevant neural activity showing up). They still won't find in the brain what the unresponsive person is literally experiencing. From a 3rd-person perspective electrochemically active neural configurations look like electrochemically active neural configurations rather than dreams scenes of a landscape, the feeling of wind on the dream avatar's skin, the sound of birds, and so-forth.
RE: New test can detect “hidden consciousness” in coma patients - confused2 - Jul 2, 2019
I probably (really) shouldn't post this but ..
After (say) a year of intensive care you have cost (state or insurer) around $200,000.
CC's link..
Quote:The researchers say 15 percent of unresponsive patients showed signs of hidden consciousness within four days of their injuries. Among these patients, half improved and were able to follow verbal commands before being released from the hospital. A year later, 44 percent were able to function independently for up to eight hours a day.And the cost to the state/insurer/unpaid carer goes on rising.
RE: New test can detect “hidden consciousness” in coma patients - RainbowUnicorn - Jul 2, 2019
(Jul 2, 2019 12:36 AM)confused2 Wrote: I probably (really) shouldn't post this but ..
After (say) a year of intensive care you have cost (state or insurer) around $200,000.
CC's link..
Quote:The researchers say 15 percent of unresponsive patients showed signs of hidden consciousness within four days of their injuries. Among these patients, half improved and were able to follow verbal commands before being released from the hospital. A year later, 44 percent were able to function independently for up to eight hours a day.And the cost to the state/insurer/unpaid carer goes on rising.
Quote: (state or insurer)you have a theoretical right to free speech
your point is maybe not defined as much as a moral pointing toward some type of assumed moral value toward life as a fiscal value.
insurance companys already do that
they have been doing that for decades.
so that moral boat has long since sailed.
since there is a heavy emphasis in the usa on religious ideologies being put into law
it begs the question why a company should be allowed to kill for profit when the abortion law defines the illegal act of killing for personal medical benefit.
the irony in moral comparatives is the majority of the time the morals are hypocritical by their nature of ideological adhesion.
if its an insurance company they cant turn off life support
if its the state then they can declare a death penalty
the medical industry is labelled as a profit making industry, so a patient on life support should be a profit cash cow.
unless its all lies put forward by corporate-con-artist-cannibalism trying to make the civilians suffer ?
if you see my point.
RE: New test can detect “hidden consciousness” in coma patients - confused2 - Jul 2, 2019
Quote:To be, or not to be--that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles
And by opposing end them. To die, to sleep--
No more--and by a sleep to say we end
The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to. 'Tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep--
To sleep--perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub,
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
..