Oct. 12, 2022 – Ever since his mid-30s, Greg lived in a nursing home. An assault 6 years earlier left him barely conscious, unable to talk or eat. Two years of rehab did little to help him. Most people in Greg’s condition would have remained nonverbal and separated from the world for the rest of their lives. But at age 38, Greg received a brain implant through a clinical trial.
Surgeons installed an electrode on either side of his thalamus, the main relay station of the brain.
“People who are in the minimally conscious state have intact brain circuitry, but…
