Doctors often recommend that people visiting coma patients play music that has special meaning to the person. This is known as a salient stimulus, something that is familiar and emotionally important. Stimuli like these are so powerful they can even rouse people in comas from their deep slumbers.
Now, French researchers have conducted the first scientific study of this phenomenon, and their preliminary findings suggest that familiar music probably can increase arousal in coma patients, and may also enhance their cognitive processes.
Comatose patients do not seem to hear or respond. Speaking may not affect their clinical outcome; time spent with them takes time away from other, more "viable" patients. Comatose patients may, however, hear; many have normal brain-stem auditory evoked responses and normal physiologic responses to auditory stimuli.
This means that unconscious beings are not only cognitively active, but might also experience emotions—both positive and negative.
Research has also suggested that stimulating the main senses – touch, hearing, vision and smell – could potentially help a person recover from a coma. Focus on pleasant sensations, 1 sensation at a time for short periods of time.
Within six hours of coma onset those patients who show eye opening have almost a one in five chance of achieving a good recovery whereas those who do not have a one in 10 chance. Those who show no motor response have a 3% chance of making a good recovery whereas those who show flexion have a better than 15% chance.
Typically, a coma does not last more than a few days or couple of weeks. In some rare cases, a person might stay in a coma for several weeks, months or even years. Depending on what caused the person to go into a coma, some patients are able to return to their normal lives after leaving the hospital.
A comatose patient may open his eyes, move and even cry while still remaining unconscious. His brain-stem reflexes are attached to a nonfunctioning cortex. Reflex without reflection.
The patient will be confused about where he or she is and what has happened. The patient will have difficulty with memory and behavior. The patient's confusion may lead to yelling, swearing, biting, or striking out.
What is a coma? A coma, sometimes also called persistent vegetative state, is a profound or deep state of unconsciousness. Persistent vegetative state is not brain-death. An individual in a state of coma is alive but unable to move or respond to his or her environment.
Even though those in a persistent vegetative state lose their higher brain functions, other key functions such as breathing and circulation remain relatively intact. Spontaneous movements may occur, and the eyes may open in response to external stimuli. Individuals may even occasionally grimace, cry, or laugh.
And the answer is yes. The brain is incredibly resilient and possesses the ability to repair itself through the process of neuroplasticity. This phenomenon is the reason why many brain injury survivors can make astounding recoveries.
Research has shown that listening to music can reduce anxiety, blood pressure, and pain as well as improve sleep quality, mood, mental alertness, and memory.
Place objects in the person's hands. Use objects with pleasant tactile sensations and different textures such as soft toys, silk scarves or books. Put a bunch of flowers in the person's room or spray their favourite perfume.
Some people feel they can remember events that happened around them while they were in a coma, while others don't. Some people have reported feeling enormous reassurance from the presence of a loved one when coming out of a coma.
People in a coma will not age like conscious people living life. Muscles weaken & emaciate. The damaged part of the brain might deteriorate as a result of inflammation to the area.
Comas are caused by damage to the brain, especially if there's bilateral damage to the cerebral cortex (which means damage on both sides), or damage to the reticular activating system. The reticular activating system controls arousal and awareness of the cerebral cortex.
Patients in a coma appear unconscious. They do not respond to touch, sound or pain, and cannot be awakened. Their brains often show no signs of the normal sleep-wakefulness cycle, which means they are unlikely to be dreaming.
Someone who is in a coma is unconscious and will not respond to voices, other sounds, or any sort of activity going on nearby. The person is still alive, but the brain is functioning at its lowest stage of alertness. You can't shake and wake up someone who is in a coma like you can someone who has just fallen asleep.
A case of pituitary coma with continuing menstruation is presented. This association is extremely rare, but a history of recent menstrual periods does not exclude advanced hypopituitarism from the differential diagnosis of severe hyponatraemia.
Usually, coma patients have their eyes closed and cannot see what happens around them. But their ears keep receiving sounds from the environment. In some cases, the brains of coma patients can process sounds, for example the voice of someone speaking to them [2].
Annie Shapiro (1913–2003) was a Canadian apron shop owner who was in a coma for 29 years because of a massive stroke and suddenly awakened in 1992. Apart from the patients in the true story Awakenings, Shapiro was the longest a person has been in a coma like state and woken up.
Music can uplift our soul, foster in us feelings of joy, compassion and love. Music is an integral part of any social gathering. It also soothes our mind, so much so that it is now recognized as a form of therapy.
Classical Music
This theory, which has been dubbed "the Mozart Effect," suggests that listening to classical composers can enhance brain activity and act as a catalyst for improving health and well-being.
Music and Mood
Listening to (or making) music increases blood flow to brain regions that generate and control emotions. The limbic system, which is involved in processing emotions and controlling memory, “lights” up when our ears perceive music.