Man in Vegetative State 'Talks'

A man in a deeply unconscious state for 5 years has been able to communicate with doctors using only his thoughts. In a study one Cornell neurologist called a "game changer" for the care of patients in a vegetative state, British and Belgian researchers used a brain scanner to show that the man was able to think "yes" or "no" answers to questions by actively changing his brain activity, reports Reuters.

"We were astonished when we saw the results of the patient's scan and that he was able to correctly answer the questions that were asked by simply changing his thoughts," said a co-author of the study. "For the first time in five years it provided the patient with a way of communicating his thoughts to the outside world." (More medical breakthrough stories.)