Enabling Communication in Patients with Severe Nervous System Dysfunction

The ability to communicate with other people is fundamental to healthy human existence. This ability is taken for granted to by most humans but it is by no means guaranteed. Patients with illnesses such as ALS may lose the ability to communicate with care givers or family as the disease progresses. In other cases, patients with severe brain injury may experience a condition known as Cognitive Motor Dissociation in which they appear unresponsive to commands or other inputs while they in fact maintain awareness. This panel will discuss such disorders and emerging technology development that hold promise for mitigating the lost ability to communicate by such patients.