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Assessment and Communication for People with Disorders of Consciousness
Published on: August 1, 2017
Using functional magnetic resonance imaging to detect covert awareness in the vegetative state
Adrian M Owen1, Martin R Coleman, Melanie Boly
1Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge, England. adrian.owen@mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk
Archives of Neurology
|August 19, 2007
Summary
Assessing patients with disorders of consciousness, like the vegetative state, is challenging. Functional neuroimaging helps detect cognitive function in patients with disorders of consciousness who cannot respond behaviorally.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Science
- Neurology
Background:
- Assessing disorders of consciousness (DoC), such as the vegetative state (VS), is complex due to reliance on subjective behavioral interpretation.
- Standard assessment for DoC relies on observable behaviors, structural imaging, and electrophysiology, which may fail in patients with intact cognition but impaired motor function.
Observation:
- Some patients with DoC may not exhibit overt responses to commands due to peripheral motor system damage, despite intact cognitive processing.
- Functional neuroimaging techniques offer a potential method to identify cognitive function in non-responsive patients.
Findings:
- Activation studies using functional neuroimaging have successfully identified residual cognitive function in patients presumed to be in a vegetative state.
- These studies reveal preserved cognitive abilities that are undetectable through conventional clinical assessments.
Implications:
- Functional neuroimaging provides a novel approach to diagnosing and understanding consciousness in patients with severe brain injuries.
- This technology can help identify covert awareness in non-responsive individuals, potentially improving patient care and prognosis.
