ArticleJOMEC journal : journalism, media and cultural studies2013
Reporting consciousness in coma: media framing of neuro-scientific research, hope, and the response of families with relatives in vegetative and minimally conscious states.
Article in JOMEC journal : journalism, media and cultural studies, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 33 citations in OpenAlex.
- Family caregivers' sense-making of the results of functional neurodiagnostics for patients with Prolonged Disorders of Consciousness.Neuropsychological rehabilitation · 2024Article
- Disclosing Results of Tests for Covert Consciousness: A Framework for Ethical Translation.Neurocritical care · 2024Review
- Disambiguating Consciousness in Clinical Settings.Neurology · 2023Article
- The UK COVID-19 contact tracing app as both an emerging technology and public health intervention: The need to consider promissory discourses.Health (London, England : 1997) · 2023Article
- Drivers and constraints to environmental sustainability in UK-based biobanking: balancing resource efficiency and future value.BMC medical ethics · 2023Article
- Perspectives on consciousness in patients with disorders of consciousness from brain injury: group concept mapping study across clinic, research, and families.BMC health services research · 2023Article
- Population health AI researchers' perceptions of the public portrayal of AI: A pilot study.Public understanding of science (Bristol, England) · 2021Article
- Informed consent for functional MRI research on comatose patients following severe brain injury: balancing the social benefits of research against patient autonomy.Journal of medical ethics · 2019Article
- Minimally conscious state or cortically mediated state?Brain : a journal of neurology · 2018Review
- UK science press officers, professional vision and the generation of expectations.Public understanding of science (Bristol, England) · 2017Article
- Relative Values: Perspectives on a Neuroimaging Technology From Above and Within the Ethical Landscape.Journal of bioethical inquiry · 2016Article
- Responsible Reporting: Neuroimaging News in the Age of Responsible Research and Innovation.Science and engineering ethics · 2016Article
- Court applications for withdrawal of artificial nutrition and hydration from patients in a permanent vegetative state: family experiences.Journal of medical ethics · 2016Article
- Anonymising interview data: challenges and compromise in practice.Qualitative research : QR · 2015Article
- Acknowledging awareness: informing families of individual research results for patients in the vegetative state.Journal of medical ethics · 2015Article
- Interpreting chronic disorders of consciousness: medical science and family experience.Journal of evaluation in clinical practice · 2015Article
- Responsible research and innovation: A manifesto for empirical ethics?Clinical ethics · 2015Article
- A diagnostic illusory? The case of distinguishing between "vegetative" and "minimally conscious" states.Social science & medicine (1982) · 2014Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
This paper examines the public representation of, and family responses to, scientific studies into consciousness in coma-like states. We examine the publicity surrounding high-profile studies using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) on 'vegetative' or 'minimally conscious' patients and compare this with family views. Our findings show how, with a few notable exceptions, the research was presented as an amazing breakthrough offering a potential 'voice' and choice for patients and hope and comfort for their families. We argue that such representations ignored key limitations, evoked unrealistic visions of recovery, and promoted very narrow representations of family reactions. The comparison between public representations of the science and responses from families with experience of this issue highlights the complex social/medical world into which neurotechnologies intervene, and points to the absence of a range of patient/family perspectives in public discourse. We conclude with suggestions for how those promoting the research, and the journalists reporting its implications, could act to ensure more responsible coverage and enhance public debate.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.