Cognitive Motor Dissociation in Disorders of Consciousness

Yelena G Bodien1, Judith Allanson1, Paolo Cardone1

  • 1From the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital (Y.G.B., J.T.G.), and the Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital (B.L.E.), Charlestown, and the Center for Neurotechnology and Neurorecovery, Massachusetts General Hospital (Y.G.B., C.C., P.K.L., A.M., W.R.S., B.L.E.), the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Harvard Medical School (Y.G.B., J.T.G.), and the Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School (Y.G.B., C.C., B.L.E.), Boston - all in Massachusetts; the Department of Neurosciences, Addenbrookes Hospital (J.A.), and the Department of Clinical Neurosciences (J.A., S.C., E.K., V.C.L., J.P., E.A.S.), the Division of Neurosurgery, School of Clinical Medicine (S.C., P.F., E.K., J.P.), the Wolfson Brain Imaging Centre (V.C.L., D.M., J.P.), and the Division of Anaesthesia, Department of Medicine (D.M., E.A.S.), University of Cambridge, Cambridge, and the School of Computing, University of Kent, Canterbury (S.C.) - all in the United Kingdom; the Coma Science Group, GIGA Consciousness, University of Liege (P.C., A.B., C.C., O.G., S.L., A.T.), and Centre du Cerveau, University Hospital of Liege (P.C., A.B., C.C., O.G., A.T.), Liege, and the European Research Council Executive Agency, Brussels (C.C.) - all in Belgium; the Department of Neurology, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York-Presbyterian Hospital (J. Carmona, G.H., A. Velazquez, A. Vrosgou, J. Claassen), the Feil Family Brain and Mind Research Institute (M.C., J.E.H., J.D.V., N.D.S.), the Division of Medical Ethics (J.E.H., J.J.F.), and the Departments of Neurology (J.D.V., N.D.S.) and Radiology (H.U.V.), Weill Cornell Medicine, Rockefeller University Hospital (J.J.F., J.D.V., N.D.S.), and the Department of Population Health Science and Policy, Center for Biostatistics, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (E.B.) - all in New York; Collège de France, Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (S.D.), Sorbonne Université, Paris Brain Institute-Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle Épinière, INSERM, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (B.R., J.D.S., M.V., L.N.), and Assistance Publique-Hopitaux de Paris, Hôpital Pitié-Salpêtrière, Département Médico-Universitaire Neurosciences (B.R., M.V., L.N.) - all in Paris; the Departments of Physics and Astronomy (A.S.), Physiology and Pharmacology (A.M.O.), and Psychology (A.M.O.), and the Western Institute for Neuroscience (A.S., A.M.O.), University of Western Ontario, London, ON, and the CERVO Brain Research Centre, Quebec, QC (S.L.) - all in Canada; Yale Law School, New Haven, CT (J.J.F.); and the Consciousness Science Institute, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, China (S.L.).

Summary

Cognitive motor dissociation, detected via fMRI or EEG, occurred in 25% of unresponsive patients. This finding highlights hidden cognitive abilities in disorders of consciousness, improving diagnosis and care.

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