BBC-TV spotlights Western neuroscientist's research

The BBC-TV program Panorama featured Western neuroscientist Adrian Owen detailing his revolutionary efforts to communicate with severely brain-injured patients using fMRI at the Robarts Research Institute. The documentary, The Mind Reader; Unlocking My Voice, captures the first time Owen's team of Western researchers had a patient in a vegetative state successfully respond to a specific question about his personal situation.

From the BBC listing:

"In a world exclusive, reporter Fergus Walsh followed a group of severely brain injured patients to reveal the revolutionary efforts that are being made to help them communicate with their families and the outside world.

Fergus met Professor Adrian Owen of Western University in Canada to learn what the brain is like when in a vegetative state and what can be done to test consciousness in those patients."

Owen has a joint appointment to Psychology in the Faculty of Social Science, and the departments of Anatomy and Cell Biology, and Physiology and Pharmacology, at the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry.