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The light's on, but is anybody home?
An extraordinary brain study concludes that a woman in a vegetative state is aware of herself. It's a dangerous claim that could throw families and physicians into turmoil.
By Robert Burton [2007-09-25]

  • ... at the risk of getting off topic

    ... permit me a small rant about Burton's analogy of the morning commute on "autopilot". Rubbish. You're quite alert during your morning commute: otherwise you'd be a danger on the road. But it's such a routine activity that you lay down almost no memory traces, so after the fact it seems as if you were barely there.

    Consider: if you've had a few years in a hum-drum job, you probably don't remember that much about your working days during those years. That's not to say that you weren't aware at the time, you just didn't lay down any lasting memory traces. We're wired to remember excitement and novelty.

    -- Andrew W.
    [Read Andrew W.'s other letters]
    Tuesday, September 25, 2007 07:19 AM
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