From the Deepest Coma, New Brain Activity Found

In the case of one patient in a drug-induced coma, and in subsequent experiments on cats, the researchers found that after deepening the coma by administering a higher dose of drugs, the silent brain started showing minimum but widespread neural activity across the brain

However, it's plausible that long periods of complete inactivity could result in loss of connections between neurons. A coma state such as the one discovered in the new experiments may better protect neural tissue, as it maintains some minimum activity throughout the brain, the researchers said.

Source (When reading the article, remember to hit next at the bottom, as it is two pages)

I'm surprised that this hasn't been discovered already. I wonder if this new brain state could allow for simple communication.

reply to post by trollz


Doesn't the brain need to work (activity) to keep the vital organs functioning? Could this be what they see, the brain sending signals to the organs?

Interesting how coma-deepening meds cause the brain to activate even more. Not that I can guess what they expected to see in the first place. Full braindeadness?

reply to post by kimish


Good point... I think no activity whatsoever is called a vegetative state.

reply to post by trollz


This is STUPID..

Think about it. Of course the cat will have brain activity - it's still ALIVE. So they were actually surprised to find brain activity in a deeply induced coma in a cat - Why on Earth?

I'm not getting it.. seems researchers will get grant money to research the most mundane things these days..

The article would have been better if they highlighted some of the ways in which this research could benefit mankind.. but nope.. just surprise at something that should be obvious.. Duh.

reply to post by EllaMarina


Anybody see a similarity here between this induced state and the use of drugs such as '___' and ayahuasca?
I'm thinking of a by-passing of normal neural pathways allowing the mysterious to come forth.

(There was a bug in the first version of this that showed on-line, It is not showing here now, so maybe it is gone. It was some garbage before the word "ayahuasca.")


OK, I see. Why they censored a particular abbreviation for a old mind drug and not big A doesn't make much sense. But A is in fashion these days.