NEW YORK (AP) - He was beaten and left for dead one night in a robbery while walking home in 1999. His skull was crushed and his brain severely damaged. The doctor said if he pulled through at all, he’d be a vegetable for the rest of his life.

For six years, the man could not speak or eat. On occasion he showed signs of awareness, and he moved his eyes or a thumb to communicate. His arms were useless. He was fed through a tube.

But researchers chose him for an experimental attempt to rev up his brain by placing electrodes in it. And here’s how his mother describes the change in her son, now 38:

"My son can now eat, speak, watch a movie without falling asleep," she said Wednesday while choking back tears during a telephone news conference. "He can drink from a cup. He can express pain. He can cry, and he can laugh.

"The most important part is he can say, ‘Mommy’ and ‘Pop.’ He can say, ‘I love you, Mommy’ … I still cry every time I see my son, but it’s tears of joy."

The progress of the patient, who remains unidentified at the family’s request, is described more formally in a report in yesterday’s issue of the journal Nature.

Experts called the results encouraging but cautioned that the experimental treatment must be tried in more patients before its value can be assessed.

Before the electrodes were implanted, the man was in what doctors call a "minimally conscious state." That means he showed only occasional awareness of himself and his environment. In a coma or vegetative state, by contrast, patients show no outward signs of awareness.

The experimental treatment is called deep brain stimulation. It has been used for years in treating Parkinson’s disease, although in this case the electrodes were implanted in slightly different places. The goal of the stimulation was to provide "drive" to areas of the brain that are critical for specific skills such as speaking.

James Bernat, a professor of neurology at Dartmouth Medical School who didn’t participate in the new research, called the Nature report exciting and important. Further study is needed to sort out how many patients would respond and how to identify the minimally conscious patients with the best chance of being helped, he said.

He noted that a similar treatment did not help Terri Schiavo, the Florida woman in a vegetative state whose care triggered national controversy before her death in 2005. That’s the typical outcome for electrical brain stimulation in vegetative states, he said.

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