New research to shed light on brain function of coma patients

New research is to be carried out by the University of Aberdeen that will aim to broaden understanding of the brain patterns of patients experiencing comas or similar conditions.

The university has established the Aberdeen Coma Science Group, which will be recruiting Scottish test subjects for groundbreaking research involving the use of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

Coma patients, locked-in syndrome sufferers and people in persistent vegetative states will undergo fMRI scans while being exposed to a variety of visual, aural, tactile and olfactory stimuli.

This will help to illustrate how reactive the brains of these patients can remain even in their unconscious states, which could prove important to doctors and carers, as well as relatives.

Professor Christian Schwarzbauer, chair in neuroimaging at the University of Aberdeen, said: "Aberdeen has been an internationally recognised centre of excellence for medical imaging for many years and that is why it is so important that the research begins here."

In December 2010, the New England Journal of Medicine published a paper that established important physiological links between comas and the state of general anaesthesia that provided insights into how to predict their effects.