[wideminded]

Is the doctor running the "communication test" the ONLY person that can "Interpret" the patient's responses?

I was wondering the same thing, but based on some clues from a sidebar in the article, it looks like there is real communication:

"The patients were repeatedly asked to imagine playing tennis or walking around their home

"In healthy volunteers each produces a distinct pattern of activity, in the premotor cortex for the first task and the parahippocampal gyrus for the second

"It allowed the researchers to put a series of yes or no questions to severely brain-injured patients. A minority were able to answer by using the power of thought"

[Rebel_Ace]

While I get your point, the text you cite is not that reassuring to me.

"...each produces a distinct pattern of activity, in the premotor cortex for the first task and the parahippocampal gyrus for the second... It allowed the researchers to put a series of yes or no questions to severely brain-injured patients..."

This is what I see playing out:

"Oh, THAT pattern is not 'distinct' enough, I judge it to be a 'No'."

"Oh, THAT pattern IS 'distinct' enough, I judge it to be a 'Yes'."

Not as unambiguous as a Hand Squeeze or Eye Blink.