IT SEEMS like the ultimate insult – but getting people with brain injuries to do maths may lead to better diagnoses. A trial of the approach has found two people in an apparent vegetative state that may be conscious but “locked-in”.
Eleven people with varying diagnoses were shown a maths problem on a screen, then two possible answers flashing at different frequencies. This evokes different patterns of brain activity, so a computer is able to tell which answer, if any, a person is focusing on (BMC Neurology, doi.org/bbkb).
Maths can identify people who are aware but unable to move their bodies since it uses so many brain areas, says co-author Yuanqing Li at South China University of Technology in Guangzhou.
This article appeared in print under the headline “Maths helps spot ‘locked-in’ people”
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