I don't have to eat my hat

[essentialsaltes]

Update on the comatose Belgian man 'communicating' via FC.

"The sceptics said it was impossible – and it was."

The truth of the matter gives me no joy, but neither are things that might give me joy necessarily true.

[still curious about the rest of Laureys' results about brain function. Dr. L's earlier support for FC didn't do much for my opinion of his perspicacity, but the two claims are separate.]

Comments

[boymaenad.livejournal.com]

is this related to this?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/feb/03/vegetative-state-patient-communication

I am confused, I think. both are in Belgium, but the tech is different and one of them is lies?

[rsheslin.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'd read about this (it might have been in either THE WEEK or Psychotherapy Networker) and couldn't find a link/citation.

From what I understand from the links he provided, the incident that Mike is referring to deals with a third party supporting the comatose person's arm and supposedly "facilitating" the patient's own movements to type messages. Sounds kind of like using a Ouija board. Or perhaps it's a different way of determining which letters the patient is trying to type.

The link you provided, however, looks at actual brain scans to determine patterns of deliberate response. It seems far more likely that someone in a coma can visualize specific activities as a means of answering YES or NO than F/C can determine minuscule shifts in musculature to type individual letters. Spelling is a helluvalot harder than either visualization or YES/NO.

[boymaenad.livejournal.com]

ok, that is what I thought. it seems so strange to me that both of these would come out the same month, in Belgium, reported on the same site, and this one doesn't reference that one at all in the text. (well, there's a link under 'related stories', but that's it.)

[essentialsaltes.livejournal.com]

Yes, the results in your link are what I was referring to in my [parenthetical sentences]. Laureys was involved in this fMRI research, but he was also quite credulous about the 'facilitated communication' that was being fraudulently used with some of the same patients in his study. The FC has now been proven to be lies (as has been known for years) - so I have some niggling worries about the fMRI research, although it seems to have a better basis in reality. Certainly other researchers will be reduplicating this research, and it should soon be settled whether it's real or not.

[ajax.livejournal.com]

To be honest, I am kinda hoping the comatose people with minimal brain activity are, in fact, vegetables. The idea of consciousness coupled with total sensory deprivation and paralysis bears a strong resemblance to my conception of Hell.

--- Ajax.

[essentialsaltes.livejournal.com]

I concur.

[boymaenad.livejournal.com]

thanks. :)

[rsheslin.livejournal.com]

Wanted to point out this related tech:

'Mind-reading' brain-scan software showcased in NY