Thank Ivan

An article published this week in Natural Neuroscience proves that patients in vegetative and minimally conscious states may not be as unaware as you think. Scientists from the University of Buenos Aires, the University of Cambridge, and the Institute of Cognitive Neurology in Argentina used Pavlovian Conditioning on a sample of vegetative patients for any signs of conscious awareness. The researchers played a tone immediately before blowing a puff of air into a patient's eye - pretty advanced stuff, I know. After numerous tries, patients began to blink after the tone, but before the puff. The results show proof that these patients can in fact be conscious and, to some degree, can even recover. A method far cheaper and quicker than extensive brain imaging, classical conditioning has obviously come a long way from Pavlov's dogs.