A reminder that extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof,
and that scientists are not experts when they are out of their own
field.
(except maybe for a couple of people on this list ;-)
On Feb 18, 2010, at 9:00 AM, <[email protected]>
<[email protected]> wrote:
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Rom Houben had been retracted by his neurologist, Steven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
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Stephen L. Black, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology, Emeritus
Bishop's University
e-mail: [email protected]
2600 College St.
Sherbrooke QC J1M 1Z7
Canada
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Paul Brandon
Emeritus Professor of Psychology
Minnesota State University, Mankato
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