![eeg brain eeg brain](https://1bxqip36sc4m3f4wbi2m3axr-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/brain-mapping.jpg)
"We know that the brain reacted differently to the command 'open your hand' and 'stop opening your hand', how much they understood."īrain activity in these unresponsive patients might be used to predict whether they will regain consciousness. "That is a very important and fascinating question, but we really don't know," Claassen explains. It's unclear whether unresponsive patients who showed brain activity could actually understand the verbal commands, or whether they were simply responding to the investigator's voice.
![eeg brain eeg brain](https://infotiti.com/wp-content/uploads/Electroencefalograma-parkinson.jpg)
The information that we can obtain about individual patients from neuroimaging tests like the one reported here has great potential to inform these decisions," said Fernández-Espejo in an e-mail statement to NPR.
![eeg brain eeg brain](https://www.slashgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/brain-music-1.jpg)
"This is crucial because it's in these early days when important medical decisions related to withdrawal of life support take place. But this study found brain activity in 15% of patients very soon after injury, within about four days. Previous studies have shown that approximately 15% of patients who have been brain-injured and unresponsive for months or years are actually aware, and their brains respond to external commands, she explains.
![eeg brain eeg brain](https://secure-ecsd.elsevier.com/covers/80/Tango2/large/9780128111406.jpg)
Only 14% of those who did not show brain activity were able to achieve that degree of independence.ĭavinia Fernández-Espejo, a senior lecturer in the school of psychology at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom, who wasn't involved in the study, calls it "elegant" and "very important." And a year after injury, 44% (7 of 16) of patients who had shown brain activity were able to be at home without any assistance for up to eight hours. They analyzed the EEG readings using an algorithm and found that 15% (16 of 104) of the brain-injured patients showed brain activity in response to verbal commands. They used headphones to play a list of simple verbal instructions for each patient, including cues to open and close, and to stop opening and closing, each hand. ", it became clear that some patients that appear to be unconscious because they can't move or talk, respond in a similar way to patients that can express that they understand commands."Ĭlaassen and the other researchers used EEG to measure the brain activity of 10 healthy volunteers and 104 patients with an acute brain injury who were unable to respond to spoken commands. "I got interested in consciousness very early on in my medical career," says Claassen. This prompted him to start his own investigation, this time using EEG, a cheaper and more widely available technique. He became interested in understanding consciousness after brain injury when he discovered a different study that used functional magnetic resonance imaging ( fMRI) to detect brain activity in brain-injured, apparently unconscious patients in response to verbal commands. Jan Claassen, head of neurocritical care and medical director of Columbia University's neurological intensive care unit, is the lead author. "Because EEG can be performed at the bedside, I think it has the potential to be generalized in ICUs around the world."ĭr. Brian Edlow, director of the Laboratory for NeuroImaging of Coma and Consciousness at Massachusetts General Hospital, who was not involved with this research. "I think this is a landmark study with the potential to impact clinical practice." says Dr. This method might make it easier for doctors to predict whether a brain-injured patient will wake up from a coma and might help inform decisions related to withdrawal of life-support. The researchers used electroencephalography or EEG to look for signs of brain activity in a group of brain-injured patients, finding that 15% of those studied had residual activity despite being unable to speak or move.ĮEG is already used to diagnose epilepsy and other brain disorders, but this study shows that EEG recordings can be used to detect what some researchers call "preserved consciousness" in some unresponsive patients with a severe brain injury. Patients who are brain-injured and unresponsive may appear unconscious, but a study published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine repurposed a widely-used technology to demonstrate that the brains of some of these patients are still active.