The Man Who Slept for 19 Years

What are the chances somewhat in a coma or vegetative state (VS) can improve? Documented cases of even slight recover are very rare. This video shows one remarkable case where, after 19 years, a man of about 40 years of age, regained speech and a certain degree of communication and comprehension.

However his language skills also revealed he had apparently no memory of the past years and seems at the filming date not to have regained any learning ability-- and I mean not "any". Unlike HM, who is missing nearly all of his medial temporal lobes but with an intact PFC, seems to acquire some small degree of implicit new memories, this patient still thinks --according to his left hemisphere speech center -- that he can walk and feed himself. He does none of these. This even more evidence for a brain consisting of modules that have a somewhat independent existence, yet normally work seamlessly in generating ourselves. But in concussions and serious brain injury, these seams come apart -- as we see in this case.

The patient had been in an auto accident in which he suffered no outer damage but scans revealed serious internal concussive brain damage to his prefrontal cortex (PFC), and also damage to his left temporal lobe -- and perhaps other less obvious damage.

In several respects he displayed the personality characteristics seen in other PFC damage patients -- anger and asocial behavior. (Think Phineas Gage.)

Why did he recover to the extent he did? Several follow-up papers covered this case. One possibilitity is that there was axon growth in areas that reconnected regions disconnected in the accident. See Laureys, Boly, & Maquet (2006) Tracking the recovery of consciousness from coma. Journal of Clinical Investigation, 116, 1823-6. This is reflected in increased glucose usage in those areas. (See below from this report.)