Brain-injured man 'jump started' awake

A man with severe brain injuries who spent six years in a near-vegetative state can now chew his food, watch a movie and talk with family thanks to a brain pacemaker that may change the way such patients are treated, US researchers say. The 38-year-old man is the first person in a minimally conscious state to be treated with deep-brain stimulation, a treatment that uses a pacemaker and two electrodes to send impulses into a part of the brain regulating consciousness.The man's awakening may change the way doctors think about people with severe brain injuries, who are largely unresponsive but still have some level of consciousness.These patients typically spend the rest of their lives in nursing homes, with little efforts at rehabilitation and slim chance of recovery."This is a group of patients that are really, in many ways, forgotten about," says Dr Ali Rezai, director of the Cleveland Clinic's Center for Neurological Restoration.

"We have to do more research, obviously, but I think down the line it will change the way we are treating or even looking at people with severe brain injury."Rezai and a team of specialists from the JFK Johnson Rehabilitation Institute in New Jersey and the Weill Cornell Medical College in New York detail the patient's progress in the journal Nature.The doctors used computer-generated maps, image-guided navigation and 3D mapping of the brain to manoeuvre electrodes to areas deep in the brain.They targeted the central thalamus, a region that helps adjust brain activity to match cognitive demands.They then connect the leads to programmable pacemaker batteries, implanted in the chest.

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