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Science 2 March 2007:
Vol. 315. no. 5816, p. 1221
DOI: 10.1126/science.1135583
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Technical Comments

Response to Comments on "Detecting Awareness in the Vegetative State"

Adrian M. Owen,1* Martin R. Coleman,2 Melanie Boly,3 Matthew H. Davis,1 Steven Laureys,3 Dietsje Jolles,1 John D. Pickard2

Additional data, supported by relevant functional neuroimaging literature, confirm that the "normal" patterns of brain activity reported in a patient who was clinically diagnosed as vegetative could not have occurred "automatically" in the absence of conscious awareness. The most parsimonious explanation remains that this patient was consciously aware despite her diagnosis of vegetative state.

1 MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge, UK.
2 Division of Academic Neurosurgery, Addenbrookes Hospital and Wolfson Brain Imaging Centre, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
3 Cyclotron Research Centre and Neurology Department, University of Liège, Belgium.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: adrian.owen{at}mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)