Original version

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa Schedule

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

Discovery

Documentaries

Factual: Science & Nature

Factual: Science & Nature: Science & Technology

BBC World Service Australasia

BBC World Service Online

BBC World Service schedule for American satellite radio and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

BBC World Service

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

BBC World Service News Internet

BBC World Service East Asia

BBC World Service South Asia

BBC World Service West and Central Africa Schedule

BBC World Service West and Central Africa

Discovery: Adrian Owen

Magazines & Reviews

Adrian Owen

23/03/2020 GMT

BBC World Service - Discovery, Adrian OwenSearch BBC

Adrian Owen tells Jim Al-Khalili about his search for awareness in brain-injured patients.

Neuroscientist Adrian Owen talks to Jim Al-Khalili about his search for awareness in patients with disorders of consciousness.

Neuroscientist Adrian Owen has spent much of his career exploring what he calls ‘the grey zone’, a realm of consciousness inhabited by people with severe brain injuries, who are aware yet unable to respond to those around them. It's this inability to respond which has led doctors to conclude that they are unaware.
 
In the late 1990's, Adrian started to question the assumption that they lacked awareness and a chance discovery set him on a novel path of enquiry - could some of these patients be conscious or aware even though they don’t appear to be?
 
His research has revealed that some are, and he’s pioneered techniques to help them to communicate with the outside world.
This emerging field of science has implications, not only for patients but, for philosophy and the law.
 
A British scientist, Adrian now runs a research programme at the Brain and Mind Institute at Western University in Canada, dedicated to reaching people in this ‘grey zone’.

Picture: Adrian Owen, BBC Copyright

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Discovery

Adrian Owen

Genres

Formats

Brand

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

About BBC World Service