Detecting signs of learning in persons diagnosed to be in a post-coma vegetative state and minimally conscious state (MCS) may modify their diagnosis. We report the case of a 65-year-old female in a vegetative state. We used microswitch-based technology that is based on patient response to eye-blinking. We followed an ABABCB design, in which A represented baseline periods, B intervention period...

PURPOSE We describe the case of a subject in a post-traumatic Minimally Conscious State (MCS) who retrieved full interaction with the environment after midazolam infusion. We studied EEG correlates of the "awakening reaction" in the different domains of frequency, time and cortical topography, along with the intrinsic connectivity within both the task-positive and the linguistic network. METH...

BACKGROUND The minimally conscious state (MCS) resulting from severe brain damage refers to a subset of patients who demonstrate unequivocal, but intermittent, behavioral evidence of awareness of self or their environment. Although clinical examination may suggest residual cognitive function, neurobiological correlates of putative cognition in MCS have not been demonstrated. OBJECTIVE To test...

Post-coma persons in a minimally conscious state (MCS) or emerged/emerging from such state (E-MCS), who are affected by extensive motor impairment and lack of speech, may develop an active role and interact with their environment with the help of technology-aided intervention programs. Although a number of studies have been conducted in this area during the last few years, new evidence about th...

OBJECTIVE To determine whether EEG spectral analysis could be used to demonstrate awareness in patients with severe brain injury. METHODS We recorded EEG from healthy controls and three patients with severe brain injury, ranging from minimally conscious state (MCS) to locked-in-state (LIS), while they were asked to imagine motor and spatial navigation tasks. We assessed EEG spectral differenc...

Sir, In a recent review ‘Minimally conscious state or cortically mediated state?’ Naccache argues that the minimally conscious state (MCS) should be relabelled the ‘cortically mediated state (CMS)’ (Naccache, 2017). Naccache motivates this change of nomenclature by arguing that the criteria associated with the MCS ‘do not inform us about the potential residual consciousness of patients, but the...

The existence of normal sleep in patients in a vegetative state is still a matter of debate. Previous electrophysiological sleep studies in patients with disorders of consciousness did not differentiate patients in a vegetative state from patients in a minimally conscious state. Using high-density electroencephalographic sleep recordings, 11 patients with disorders of consciousness (six in a mi...

OBJECTIVE Patients with the unresponsive wakefulness syndrome (UWS; formerly vegetative state) or in a minimally conscious state (MCS) open their eyes spontaneously but show no (UWS) or only marginal (MCS) signs of awareness. Because these states can become permanent, residual information processing capacities need to be determined, and reliable outcome predictors need to be found. We assessed ...