The Belgian man believed to be in a coma for 23 years, but recently found to be conscious, has been big news for the past few days. But now problems are emerging with the story. No one doubts that he's sentient, since MRI scans have confirmed this. But his ability to communicate is being questioned. Skeptics are questioning whether the statements attributed to him really are his, or do they come from his "facilitator" (a woman who holds his hand to help him type on a keyboard)? Doctors are also questioning how someone could be so profoundly isolated for so long, and yet still be so sane and coherent. From
Wired.com:
“If facilitated communication is part of this, and it appears to be, then I don’t trust it,” said Arthur Caplan, director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Bioethics. “I’m not saying the whole thing is a hoax, but somebody ought to be checking this in greater detail. Any time facilitated communication of any sort is involved, red flags fly.”
There's also an ongoing discussion of the case in the
hoax forum.
Comments
James Randi has proposed a simple test of the "facilitated communication" process, which wouldn't interfere with the process at all. Oddly, the "facilitators" don't seem interested in being tested, even with a million dollar prize dangled in front of them.
This kind of thing always reminds me of the experiments in the 1970s that involved teaching American Sign Language to apes. There was a lot of excitement about how articulate these apes were, until Herbert Terrace (who actually ran one of the most famous such experiments) blew the whistle by pointing out that the apes always had someone (usually off-camera) prompting them to make the correct signs. The apes were just copying (aping, if you will) the gestures of their trainers, and they didn't "talk" when they weren't being prompted. And they weren't really very good at talking under any circumstances. They did learn to make signs, but they never combined them into meaningful phrases or sentences, and most of their utterances were some version of "give me food" (something every dog I've ever known can also indicate by signs).
He further explains that Houben wasn't in a real coma (or 'unarousable unresponsiveness'), but probably in some form of 'locked-in syndrome'.
The doctor speculates that this case has been dug up in the context of debates in several European countries regarding euthanasia legislation. Houben's case might be instrumentalised to bolster the pro-life point of view...
For those interested in the article (and able to read Flemish-Dutch 😉 ):
http://www.standaard.be/artikel/detail.aspx?artikelid=N12IU8NC
:lol:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/dec/05/bad-science-ben-goldacre-column
Its really very heart breaking.Although, the current trend is to favor facilitated communication and pointing systems, both of these response forms have several disadvantages that impede the development of the verbal operants. It is suggested that for many nonverbal individuals sign language is a better alternative response form, and has a better chance of improving speech.
The neurologist is still convinced that Rom's concious, though, they'll just have to find a new way of communicating.