I had pointed out that the extravagent claims through facilitated communication (FC) for the consciousness of the comatose Rom Houben had been retracted by his neurologist, Steven Laureys.
On 18 Feb 2010 at 7:58, Dennis Goff wrote: > NPR did a good follow-up story yesterday on All Things Considered. > http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123813455 > tiny: http://tinyurl.com/ydlmwzq That's probably the most informative of the sources so far available. Still, who except for the hopey-changey elitist socialists (and Canadians, but I repeat myself) actually listen to NPR? The fact that Dr. Laureys was so easily fooled by FC makes me wonder about the other work he has been involved in, which has been published in some of our finest journals (e.g. Boly et al, Neuroimage, 2007; see also http://tinyurl.com/yf4bwnj ). There the claim is made that consciousness can be determined by instructing comatose patients to imagine they are playing tennis, while monitoring their brain activity with MRI. This work has survived rigorous peer review, and appears to have plenty of controls. Yet given its face implausibility, recent concerns that MRI data has a worrisome subjectivity, and Dr. Laurey's inclination to swallow stuff which is patently nonsense, one wonders. Perhaps someone like Randi needs to be called in to ensure that the researchers are not fooling themselves again. It ha also not escaped my notice that there appears to be a surfeit of Stephens on this topic, if we include me and also the neurologist Steven Novella, who is quoted for his sceptical views on the Houben case. If we can have an organization of Steves for Darwin (and we do, including a Steve Darwin for Darwin), why not a Steves for consciousness studies too? Stephen ----------------------------------------------------------------- Stephen L. Black, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology, Emeritus Bishop's University e-mail: [email protected] 2600 College St. Sherbrooke QC J1M 1Z7 Canada ----------------------------------------------------------------------- --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=696 or send a blank email to leave-696-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
