Related Experiment Video
Updated: Feb 27, 2026
Assessment and Communication for People with Disorders of Consciousness
Published on: August 1, 2017
Probing consciousness in a sensory-disconnected paralyzed patient
Benjamin Rohaut1,2,3,4,5, Federico Raimondo2,3,5,6,7, Damien Galanaud4,8
1a Department of Neurology , AP-HP, Groupe hospitalier Pitié-Salpêtrière, Neuro-ICU , Paris , France.
Background:
Diagnosis of consciousness can be very challenging in some clinical situations such as severe sensory-motor impairments.
Case Study:
We report the case study of a patient who presented a total "locked-in syndrome" associated with and a multi-sensory deafferentation (visual, auditory and tactile modalities) following a protuberantial infarction.
Result:
In spite of this severe and extreme disconnection from the external world, we could detect reliable evidence of consciousness using a multivariate analysis of his high-density resting state electroencephalogram. This EEG-based diagnosis was eventually confirmed by the clinical evolution of the patient.
Conclusion:
This approach illustrates the potential importance of functional brain-imaging data to improve diagnosis of consciousness and of cognitive abilities in critical situations in which the behavioral channel is compromised such as deafferented locked-in syndrome.
