[en] Total locked-in syndrome is characterized by tetraplegia, anarthria and paralysis of eye motility. In this study, consciousness was detected in a 21-year-old woman who presented a total locked-in syndrome after a basilar artery thrombosis (49 days post-injury) using an active event-related paradigm. The patient was presented sequences of names containing the patient's own name and other names. The patient was instructed to count her own name or to count another target name. Similar to 4 age- and gender-matched healthy controls, the P3 response recorded for the voluntarily counted own name was larger than while passively listening. This P3 response was observed 14 days before the first behavioral signs of consciousness. This study shows that our active event-related paradigm allowed to identify voluntary brain activity in a patient who would behaviorally be diagnosed as comatose.
Disciplines :
Neurology
Author, co-author :
Schnakers, Caroline ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Centre de recherches du cyclotron
Perrin, Fabien
Schabus, Manuel
Hustinx, Roland ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Médecine nucléaire
Majerus, Steve ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département des sciences cognitives > Psychopathologie cognitive
F.R.S.-FNRS - Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique [BE] French Speaking Community of Belgium Concerted Research Action JSMF - James S McDonnell Foundation [US-MO] EU - European Commission MSF - Mind Science Foundation [US-TX]
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