Dynamic patterns of global brain communication differentiate conscious from unconscious patients after severe brain injury
Loading...
Author (Corporation)
Publication date
2021
Typ of student thesis
Course of study
Collections
Type
01A - Journal article
Editors
Editor (Corporation)
Supervisor
Parent work
Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience
Special issue
DOI of the original publication
Link
Series
Series number
Volume
15
Issue / Number
Pages / Duration
Patent number
Publisher / Publishing institution
Frontiers Research Foundation
Place of publication / Event location
Edition
Version
Programming language
Assignee
Practice partner / Client
Abstract
The neurophysiology of the subjective sensation of being conscious is elusive; therefore, it remains controversial how consciousness can be recognized in patients who are not responsive but seemingly awake. During general anesthesia, a model for the transition between consciousness and unconsciousness, specific covariance matrices between the activity of brain regions that we call patterns of global brain communication reliably disappear when people lose consciousness. This functional magnetic imaging study investigates how patterns of global brain communication relate to consciousness and unconsciousness in a heterogeneous sample during general anesthesia and after brain injury. First, we describe specific patterns of global brain communication during wakefulness that disappear during propofol and sevoflurane general anesthesia. Second, we search for these patterns in a cohort of unresponsive wakeful patients and unmatched healthy controls in order to evaluate their potential use in clinical practice. We found that patterns of global brain communication characterized by high covariance in sensory and motor areas or low overall covariance and their dynamic change were strictly associated with intact consciousness in this cohort. In addition, we show that the occurrence of these two patterns is significantly related to activity within the frontoparietal network of the brain, a network known to play a crucial role in conscious perception. We propose that this approach potentially recognizes consciousness in the clinical routine setting.
Keywords
Consciousness, Brain injury, Coma, Unresponsive wakefulness syndrome, fMRI, Anesthesia, Propofol, Sevoflurane
Subject (DDC)
Event
Exhibition start date
Exhibition end date
Conference start date
Conference end date
Date of the last check
ISBN
ISSN
1662-5137
Language
English
Created during FHNW affiliation
Yes
Strategic action fields FHNW
Publication status
Published
Review
Peer review of the complete publication
Open access category
Gold
License
Citation
Golkowski, D., Willnecker, R., Rösler, J., Ranft, A., Schneider, G., Jordan, D., & Ilg, R. (2021). Dynamic patterns of global brain communication differentiate conscious from unconscious patients after severe brain injury. Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience, 15. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnsys.2021.625919