Re: OT - Brain seen rebuilding after 19-year coma

[Guest guest]

I live in Arkansas, and I was excited to hear about this on the radio

yesterday morning. I will have to see if there is more info in the

state newspaper.

April

-- In EOHarm , " ianpsmom " <ianpsmom@...> wrote:

>

> http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20060704-073025-1424r

>

> Brain seen rebuilding after 19-year coma

>

> NEW YORK, July 4 (UPI) -- Cornell University researchers have

> documented an Arkansas man's brain that rebuilt nerve pathways

after

> 19 years in a coma-like state.

>

> In 2003, Terry Wallis emerged from a minimally conscious state at

> the age of 39 and said the word " Mom. " He had been injured in a

> pickup truck that fell 25 feet and landed on its roof.

>

> Using PET scans and an imaging technique called diffusion tensor

> imaging, researchers from Cornell University's Weill Medical

College

> Citigroup Biomedical Imaging Center in New York examined Wallis'

> brain after he regained full consciousness, the Los Angeles Times

> reported.

>

> They found cells in relatively undamaged areas had formed new

axons,

> the long nerve fibers that transmit messages between neurons.

>

> " In essence, Terry's brain may have been seeking out new pathways

to

> reestablish functional connections to areas involved in speech and

> motor control to compensate for those lost due to damage, " said the

> study's senior author, Dr. Schiff, a neurologist.

>

> Wallis has regained the ability to form sentences and has recovered

> some use of his limbs, but still can't walk or feed himself.

>

> The research appears in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

>