A team of neuroscientists and doctors have discovered signs of brain activity in former Israel Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who has been comatose for nearly six years after suffering a brain stroke.
This team, consisting of Martin Monti, assistant professor of psychology and neurosurgery at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), professors Alon Friedman, Galia Avidan and Tzvi Ganel of the Zlotowski Center for Neuroscience at Israel's Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, and Dr Ilan Shelef, head of medical imaging at Israel's Soroka University Medical Center, conducted a brain activity test on Sharon.
The 84-year-old Sharon is in a vegetative state since suffering a brain hemorrhage in 2006. In order to examine the extent and quality of his brain processing, Sharon was scanned using methods recently developed by Monti and his colleagues, stated a UCLA press release. The test lasted approximately two hours.
The former prime minister was shown photos of his family, listened to his son's voice and tactile stimulation was used to assess the extent to which his brain responded to external stimuli, the release said. The scientists were surprised to see significant brain activity in each test, indicating appropriate processing of these stimulations, Monti said.
In addition, to assess Sharon's level of consciousness, the scientists conducted three tests. Sharon was asked to imagine hitting a tennis ball and walking through the rooms of his home. The press release stated that they also showed him a photograph of a face superimposed on a photo of a house, asking him to focus first on the face and then on the house. The scientists found encouraging, but subtle, signs of consciousness.
"Information from the external world is being transferred to the appropriate parts of Sharon's brain. However, the evidence does not as clearly indicate whether he is consciously perceiving this information," Monti said. "We found faint brain activity indicating that he was complying with the tasks. He may be minimally conscious, but the results were weak and should be interpreted with caution."
Tzvi Ganel, who initiated the project, stressed that Sharon's family wished to employ these new techniques not only for Sharon's benefit but also for other families in a similar situation.
