Doubting Mr Houben

That Belgian coma man who was discovered to have been conscious for 23 years? Well, P.Z.Myers is sceptical. According to news reports, "He now communicates by using a special keyboard attached to his wheelchair". But watch that BBC video - or here - and you'll see that this is a very generous interpretation of what's actually happening. The man's hand is clearly being guided across the keyboard by a "facilitator".

Facilitated Communication has a highly controversial history. From Wiki..."a majority of peer reviewed scientific studies conclude that the typed language output attributed to the clients is directed or systematically determined by the therapists who provide facilitated assistance." Basically, the subjects show a remarkable tendency to say exactly what their facilitators expect them to say. It'd be interesting to ask a question of Mr Houben when his facilitator was out of the room, and then ask her back in to "help" him answer. I suspect we'd see a rather less fluent response.

As for the brain tests that show consciousness, there is, at least, room for doubt.

Everyone (especially the poor man's mother: "she always believed her son could communicate") wants the story to be true, but that's not a good enough reason for it actually to be true.

Update: the redoubtable James Randi is on the case, and is not amused...This cruel farce has to stop!:

This is yet another obvious example of abysmal, practiced, purposeful ignorance by medical personnel....

This man [Houben] is not seeing the screen. He is not aware of what is going on. He is an unknowing victim of these charlatans.

See also this comment, from a nurse, at the Metafilter thread:

This is the medical equivalent of hiring a medium to communicate with the spirit world.

Update 2: I knew there'd been some work on facilitated communication with severely autistic children which had since been thoroughly discredited, but couldn't find any reference. Now here's the transcript of a Frontline (US) investigation from 1993 into the Facilitated Communication Institute, Syracuse University. The results were unequivocal: the communication was coming not from the children but from the facilitators. Students of Nineties psychotherapy will not be surprised to hear that a number of these autistic children "communicated" on how they'd been sexually abused by their parents. Children were taken away from their parents as a result. Lives were ruined.

Comments

[Dom]

He understands English but responds in Flemish. I bet the facilitator understands English too.

60 Minutes, a news show, once tested this facilitated communication. They used a simple keyboard with "yes" and "no" keys, but didn't tell the facilitator which was which. You can guess what happened.

The news reports say he was in a "persistent vegetative state". I assumed that meant eyes closed and no REM.

[DaninVan]

Brings back memories of 'Johnny Got His Gun'...the 1971 original. I hate remakes...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067277/