New research suggests the voices of coma patients' family members could help awaken the brain and bring them back to consciousness.
Researchers found coma patients who heard familiar stories repeated by family members four times a day for six week (via headphone recordings) recovered consciousness much faster compared to those who did not hear the stories, Northwestern University reported.
"We believe hearing those stories in parents' and siblings' voices exercises the circuits in the brain responsible for long-term memories," said lead author Theresa Pape. "That stimulation helped trigger the first glimmer of awareness."
The findings could also be a beacon of hope for distraught family members of coma patients.
"Families feel helpless and out of control when a loved one is in a coma," Pape said. "It's a terrible feeling for them. This gives them a sense of control over the patient's recovery and the chance to be part of the treatment."
When some of the patients heard the voice of a family member calling their name, their brains showed signs of increased neural activity when viewed through an MRI.
"We saw changes in the blood oxygen level in their brain regions associated with retrieving long-term memory and understanding language," Pape said. "That means they were using those regions of their brains."
To make their findings the researchers looked at 15 patients with traumatic closed head injuries who were in a vegetative or minimally conscious state. The subjects received Familiar Auditory Sensory Training (FAST) and were also given baseline testing to see how they responded to generic sounds such as whistles or non-familiar voices telling them stories.
The team found the largest gains in recovery occurred during the first two weeks of treatment, with small incremental gains occurring over the following four weeks of the study. The researchers noted playing stories is something that all families can easily do if their loved one is in a coma.
The findings were published in a recent edition of Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair.
