ABOVE: Researchers used ultrasound to stimulate the thalamus (shown) of patients in comas.
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It’s a trope of soap operas and other fiction that a long-term coma can serve as a kind of time travel, fast-forwarding a character into a future in which they spontaneously awaken and must come to terms with the changes that have occurred as they slept. Contrary to the impression one might get from watching daytime TV, it’s actually very rare for people to stay in a coma for long. Martin Monti, a neuroscientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, says estimates of how many people are in what’s known as a vegetative state for more than a few months range from about 50 to 150 per 1 million. For those few patients and their families, “these are all very difficult situations,” he says.
Most people with what doctors call disorders of consciousness—which include ...
