LUCKY PETER SINGER ISN'T HIS DAD:

Studying a Brain Healing From 19 Lost Years (BENEDICT CAREY, 7/07/06, NY Times)

Terry Wallis spends almost all of his waking hours in bed, listening to country and western music in a cramped, two-room bungalow down a gravel road off state highway 263.

Mr. Wallis, 42, wears an open, curious expression and speaks in a slurred but coherent voice. He volleys a visitor's pleased-to-meet-you with, "Glad to be met," and can speak haltingly of his family's plans to light fireworks at his brother's house nearby.

For his family, each word is a miracle. For 19 years — until June 11, 2003 — Mr. Wallis lay mute and virtually unresponsive in a state of minimal consciousness, the result of a head injury suffered in a traffic accident. Since his abrupt recovery — his first word was "Mom," uttered at the sight of his mother — he has continued to improve, speaking more, remembering more.

But Mr. Wallis's return to the world, and the progress he has made, have also been a kind of miracle for scientists: an unprecedented opportunity to study, using advanced scanning technology, how the human brain can suddenly recover from such severe, long-lasting injury.

In a paper to be published on Tuesday, researchers are reporting that they have found strong evidence that Mr. Wallis's brain is healing itself, by forming new neural connections since 2003.