Car Accident Victim Left in Vegetative State for 15 Years Reacts Positively to Vagus Nerve Stimulation
Orange County, CA - September 27th 2017 - The vagus nerve, latin for “wandering,” is a cranial nerve that ‘wanders’ from the brain to other parts of the body, including the heart, lungs, and stomach. This critical nerve activity is "important for arousal, alertness and the fight-or-flight response," wrote Dr. Angela Sirigu, an author of the preceeding study and a neuroscientist at the Institut des Sciences Cognitives Marc Jeannerod in Lyon, France, in an email to CNN news.Sirigu and her colleagues implanted a vagus nerve stimulator in the chest of a 35 year old male left in a vegetative state due to a car crash 15 years ago. To be diagnosed as an individual in a vegetative state, patients exhibit no indication of consciousness, including mental and motor functionality. Being left in a vegetative state can result from a variety of injuries, including traumatic brain injury or neuron damage due to lack of oxygen.
In order to stimulate the Vagus nerve, a device was surgically implanted within the patient’s chest, along with a threaded wire to attach to the nerve. The connection allowed electrical signals to traverse to the brain stem at the point where the brain and spinal cord meet. This in turn allowed impulses to transmit to other areas in the brain. Stimulating the vagus nerve activates "a natural physiological mechanism," wrote Sirigu. After a month of stimulation, brain imaging scans and EEG images showed that the patient's attention, movements and brain activity displayed signs of improvement. According to the author’s notes, as journaled by Scientific American, the patient was able to follow an object with his eyes, turn his head when asked to, and even widen his eyes in surprise when a researcher’s head came close to his face — all of which is impossible in a vegetative state.
This study could prove advantageous for patients who have been left in a vegetative state. While brain trauma heavily differs amongst the estimated 50,000 individuals diagnosed in the U.S per year, these findings are promising in regards to future research and funding. The study demonstrates that despite extensive brain injuries the human brain has more potential than previously conceived.
