Groopman on "disorders of consciousness"

Just read an article in the New Yorker by Jerome Groopman on brain-imagery technology and people in vegetative states. This technology shows that non-responsive patients are still "unconsciously" processing information. They are capable of interpreting and imagining. There is something terrifying about this. It is so cool how our brains work, but brain biology stuff confuses my sense of self. Thinking of myself as this neurological processing unit... I don't know.

Fortunately the imaging technology results led to helping a couple of patients recover. Most still don't, though.

It is so scary to think of being in a coma, being alive but not alive. And it is worse to think about being in that state and being conscious. As a doctor quoted in the article explains, "The thought of coma, vegetative state, and other disorders of consciousness troubles us all, because it awakens the old terror of being buried alive. Can any of these patients think, feel, or understand those around them? And, if so, what does this tell us about the nature of consciousness itself?"