9 November 2011
Last updated at 20:48 ET
The upper images show brain activity in a healthy volunteer and the lower those of a vegetative patient
A method of communicating with brain damaged patients who appear to be in a vegetative state has been discovered by scientists in the UK and Belgium.
Writing in The Lancet medical journal they describe how they measured electrical activity in the brain to detect consciousness.
The technique, known as EEG, is painless and involves attaching electrodes to the head.
Doctors hope it can be used as a diagnostic tool in homes and hospitals.
The trial involved 16 patients at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge and the University Hospital of Liege in Belgium.
All had been diagnosed as being in a vegetative state – a condition where a
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