How Scientists Communicate With Coma Victims  For decades people
have spoken to people in vegetative states, hoping their voices
will be heard. But these days researchers are going much further
than that: in controversial experiments, a group of scientists
are working out how to communicate with people in comas.  Nature
has a wonderful feature piece which centers around Adrian Owen,
a maverick in the field of neuroscience. The article describes
one of Owen's early successful experiments:   "Incredibly, he
provided answers. A change in blood flow to certain parts of the
man's injured brain convinced Owen that patient 23 was conscious
and able to communicate. It was the first time that anyone had
exchanged information with someone in a vegetative state."  That
was less than two years ago. Now, having been poached from
Cambridge, UK, by the University of Western Ontario in London,
Canada, his team of scientists are making rapid advances. The
feature sheds some light on the current work:  "One goal is to
identify