A Belgian man who stunned the world last year by apparently communicating after 23 years in a coma cannot in fact do so, researchers say. The doctor who believed that Rom Houben was communicating through a facilitator now says the method does not work.

Dr Steven Laureys told the BBC: "The story of Rom is about the diagnosis of consciousness, not communication." His conclusions follow a study to test the validity of so-called facilitated communication....

Last November Mr Houben's mother, Fina Houben, told the BBC that she always believed her son could communicate. "He is not depressed, he is an optimist," she said. "He wants to get out of life what he can."

Last year, Mrs Houben claimed her son was writing a book. "Just imagine," Mr Houben ostensibly typed out via his speech therapist. "You hear, see, feel and think but no one can see that."

Research on clinically undetected consciousness is easily subject to overinterpretation and sensationalism that the authors certainly do not intend. In discussions with families and in physicians' capacity as spokespersons to society on these matters, three points should be emphasized. First, in this study, brain activation was detected in very few patients. Second, activation was found only in some patients with traumatic brain injury, not in patients with global ischemia and anoxia. Third, cortical activation does not provide evidence of an internal "stream of thought" (William James's term), memory, self-awareness, reflection, synthesis of experience, symbolic representations, or -- just as important -- anxiety, despair, or awareness of one's predicament. Without judging the quality of any person's inner life, we cannot be certain whether we are interacting with a sentient, much less a competent, person.