An Atlantic Reading List on Consciousness

What it feels like to love somebody who cannot communicate the way they once did

Maskot / Getty

This is an edition of The Wonder Reader, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a set of stories to spark your curiosity and fill you with delight. Sign up here to get it every Saturday morning.

People in a vegetative state may be far more aware than was once thought, Sarah Zhang reports in a recent feature. “In some extraordinary patients, the line between conscious and unconscious is more permeable than one might expect,” she writes. As scientists continue to try to comprehend the inner life of unresponsive patients, their work raises questions both for those living with these conditions and for the people who love them. Can these individuals hear us, and even understand us? What do we owe them? Today’s reading list explores the human mind, and what it feels like to love somebody who cannot communicate the way they once did.

On the Human Mind

The Mother Who Never Stopped Believing Her Son Was Still There

By Sarah Zhang

For decades, Eve Baer remained convinced that her son, unresponsive after a severe brain injury, was still conscious. Science eventually proved her right.

Read the article.

How People With Dementia Make Sense of the World

By Dasha Kiper

The human brain has a way of creating logic, even when it’s drifting from reality.

Read the article.

A Scientific Feud Breaks Out Into the Open

By Ross Andersen

I’m a pseudoscience? No, you’re a pseudoscience!

Read the article.

Still Curious?

Other Diversions

P.S.

Courtesy of Holly S.

I recently asked readers to share a photo of something that sparks their sense of awe in the world. Holly S. sent this photo of Glacier National Park.

I’ll continue to feature your responses in the coming weeks.

— Isabel