The man who believes he is dead

• Autores: Helen Thomson
• Localización: New scientist, ISSN 0262-4079, Nº. 2919, 2013, pág. 12
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Nine years ago, a patient named Graham woke up and discovered he was dead. Graham was in the grip of Cotard's syndrome, a condition characterized by the belief that the body or parts of it no longer exist. Now a positron emission tomography (PET) scan of his brain--the first of its kind in someone with this disorder--has revealed unique information about how the brain constructs consciousness. To find out more, Adam Zerman and Steven Laureys and colleagues used PET to monitor metabolic activity across Graham's brain. They found that it was so low across large areas of the frontal and parietal regions it resembled that of someone in a vegetative state. Other researchers said that comparing Graham's brain with those of people who are depressed or in a vegetative state might provide more insight into how his reduction in metabolic levels can lead to such symptoms.