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| Tuesday, 04 July 2006 09:32 | | BNN: British Nursing News Online · www.bnn-online.co.uk
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Terry Wallis, 42, from Arkansas, America, a car crash victim who awoke after 19 years in a "minimally conscious state" has helped neuroscientists discover that the brain retains some ability to repair itself.
Scientists believe that nerve cells in the relatively undamaged areas of Terry Wallis's brain grew new connections during the years after his crash in 1984. Three years ago, the 42-year-old recovered some ability to talk and was able to move his left side. However, he still believed it was 1984 - the year his daughter, Amber, was born and the year of his accident.
Using new techniques to study the structure and the workings of his brain, Dr Henning Voss, of Weill Cornell Medical College's Citigroup Biomedical Imaging Centre in New York, and three other institutions, observed distinctive features that were interpreted as the regrowth of axons - the long filaments that extend from nerve cells that make up the white matter of the brain.
The study, published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, said Mr Wallis's brain may have been trying to re-establish connections that would allow functions such as motor control and speech to resume. They compared his post-recovery brain structure and function over 18 months - during which time his legs showed some signs of recovery - with 20 healthy individuals and a coma patient in a more severe state who had not shown any improvement.
Dr Adrian Pini, a neuroscientist from King's College London, said: "They definitely have evidence of re-myelination, which would improve the speed of conduction and connectivity of different cells, improving function.
"But the distinction is whether or not the axons were already there, and whether they had been lying about but without any myelin, or whether axon re-growth has occurred and appropriate connections have started to sprout across the brain.
"It is difficult to be sure using this technique”.
In an accompanying article, Steven Laureys, of the University of Liege, Belgium, said: "The findings of Voss and his co-workers will increase our understanding of severely brain-damaged patients and their 'miracle' recovery of consciousness”.
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