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̽��ֱ��symposium, held at Robinson College, brought together clinicians, academics and allied health professionals to review the latest research into these conditions and discuss methods to improve the assessment, care and rehabilitation.

Dr Martin Coleman, who organised the symposium and recently published new research into this condition in the journal Brain, said: “We are in total agreement that more research and funding are urgently needed to improve the care and rehabilitation of this patient group. Sadly there is currently no international standard for their assessment. Practice varies from one centre to the other and many patients never have access to facilities and expertise required to perform a proper assessment.

“Additionally, we currently have no statistically proven interventions to facilitate recovery. To address these problems we need a global multidisciplinary union to conduct large population studies. This conference attended by over 220 delegates from around the world demonstrates the desire of professionals in this field to address these problems and we believe there is a growing momentum that will see improvements.”

Writing recently in the journal Brain, Dr Coleman and his colleagues Jenni Rodd ( ̽��ֱ�� College London), Matt Davis and Adrian Owen (MRC Cognition and Brain Science Unit, Cambridge) described work they had conducted at the Wolfson Brain Imaging Centre with patients in the vegetative and minimally conscious state.

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging they assessed whether patients, behaviourally unresponsive to command, retained aspects of language comprehension in the same way as healthy volunteers. They were surprised to find that in three patients (meeting the international criteria defining the vegetative state) areas of brain activity were consistent with volunteers.

Over the course of the meeting delegates heard about similar work using brain imaging and electrophysiology to improve the assessment of these patients as well as emerging interventions, such as deep brain stimulation that might facilitate some recovery. ̽��ֱ��overall emphasis was upon translating research into clinical practice and improving the quality of care and rehabilitation that persons in these conditions receive.