Effects of Emotional Stimuli in Patients With Disorders of Consciousness

Effects of Emotional Stimuli in Patients With Disorders of Consciousness: An Electroencephalography and Neuroimaging Study

Disentangling the vegetative state from the minimally conscious state is often difficult when relying only on behavioral observation. In this study, the investigators explored a new event-related potential paradigm as an alternative method for the detection of voluntary brain activity and cognitive abilities in the patients with disorders of consciousness.

Auditory emotional stimuli have potential beneficial effects on cognitive functions and consciousness in patients with disorders of consciousness (DOC); however, precise and accurate quantitative indices to estimate cerebral activation to different auditory stimuli remain scarce. In this study, investigators assessed the response of different brain regions to emotional stimuli using ERP(Event-related potential),and further investigated the brain activation network.

Patients:

Inclusion Criteria:

1. Disorders of consciousness (Traumatic brain injury, stroke or anoxic encephalopathy)
2. Coma diagnosis (Plum and Posner, 1966), vegetative state (Task Force, 1994) or minimally conscious state (Giacino, Ashwal et al. 2002)
3. Lack of autonomic crisis since one week minimum
4. Medical condition considered stable
5. Patients who do not present hearing loss. Peaks I and II of Brainstem Auditory Evoked Potentials (BAEP) will be normal.

Exclusion Criteria:

1. hearing Problem
2. Uncontrolled Epilepsy
3. Autonomic crises
4. Medical unstable state
5. Pregnant or likely to be (interrogation data) or breastfeeding woman

Healthy controls:

Inclusion Criteria:

1. Subjects with normal hearing
2. Absence of neurological disorder
3. Subjects able to understand the experimental instructions

Exclusion Criteria:

1. Hearing problems and / or hearing loss higher than 30 decibels Hearing Level (dB HL) at a frequency band from 250 to 8000 Hz
2. Neurological disorders
3. Pregnant or likely to be (interrogation data) or breastfeeding woman