The answer lies not so much within Schiavo's brain as in the minds of those who observe her. As social beings, humans are hard-wired to examine another's face for clues to what the person behind it is thinking. They naturally associate vocal tones with specific moods. They detect meaningful words in nonsense utterances.
"I can understand that, because I have examined scores if not hundreds of people with this condition," says Dr. Leon Prockop, a professor of neurology at the University of South Florida, who has reviewed the brain-damaged woman's CAT scans.
At first, he says, his "natural emotional desire to be optimistic and hopeful" made him interpret movements and facial expressions as purposeful. But after long experience, Prockop says, "I came to realize that my emotional reaction was understandable as a human being, but was not an intellectual assessment."
During testimony in a 2002 hearing, court-appointed neurologist Peter Bambakidis acknowledged that seeing the videotapes of Schiavo's mother kissing and speaking with her gave him pause at first.
But Bambakidis noted that such visual tracking "commonly occurs spontaneously in people in a persistent vegetative state." After reviewing her brain scans and visiting with her, he came to the conclusion that she had no hope of recovery.
Dr. James Barnhill, a neurologist hired by Michael Schiavo, the husband who has fought through the courts to honor what he says would have been his wife's wishes, reviewed the videotapes and came to a similar conclusion.
Barnhill has said Terri Schiavo engaged in "pathological laughter, pathological crying … consistent with the vocalizations that are seen in people with persistent vegetative states. I see nothing on that tape that indicates an awareness there or consciousness
"The mere noise of walking will make the eyes flicker," said Lawrence J. Schneiderman, a professor at the University of California, San Diego medical school who specializes in the bioethics of medical futility and end-of-life care. "And there may be a grimace, so the relatives will say, 'Oh, she's happy to see me.'"
But all of those apparent signs of awareness are the product of a brain so damaged that by medical definition it has no capability of thought, no sensory awareness, no sense of its own existence in the world.
In Schiavo's condition, only the most primitive part of the brain survives. That region, known as the brain stem, merely sustains the vital functions of breathing, heart rate, sleep-wake cycles and primitive reflexes such as coughing and blinking.
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory?id=616805&page=3Seems like the Court-appointed Doctor(Among others) disagrees with your affadavit Dr.'s opinion.
