Coma Guy Did Not Type Out His Story

Remember Rom Houben, the Belgian man who was supposedly completely conscious during a 23-year coma? Back in November there was some controversy around the contention that Houben was able to communicate his ordeal “with assistance from an aide who helps guide his finger to letters on a flat computer keyboard.” Well, guess what?

Steven Laureys of the University of Liège in Belgium, who first diagnosed Houben as conscious, but dissociated himself from the communication fiasco, has carried out subsequent tests to see if Houben is capable of this kind of communication. He concludes that the speech therapist holding Houben’s finger was in fact the source of the messages.

Scans of Houben’s brain activity reveal behavior “only slightly differently from that of a healthy brain,” leaving researchers “fairly certain” that he is in fact conscious, so studies will continue, but the mystery is still unresolved.