Emotional consciousness preserved in patients with disorders of consciousness?

Abstract

Increasing evidence from studies of brain responses to subject’s own name (SON) indicates that residual consciousness is preserved in patients with disorders of consciousness (DOC) and that specific network activation might provide evidence of consciousness. However, it remains unclear whether SON is suitable for detection of emotional consciousness; moreover, the particular aspects of brain network organization that are critical for consciousness are unknown. The present study used an innovative approach to explore affective consciousness in patients with DOC during emotional stimuli. EEG data were acquired from 15 patients and 15 healthy volunteers. We analyzed brain potentials and functional network connectivity with a passive emotional paradigm based on graph theoretical methods. Larger N1 or P3a was detected in patients upon exposure to emotional sound, relative to neutral stimuli. Brain topology revealed that emotional sound evoked significantly stronger network linkages in healthy controls; additionally, it evoked several connectivity changes in patients with DOC. In conclusion, emotional consciousness might be partially preserved in patients with DOC; moreover, EEG network patterns could provide new insights into the neural activity of emotional perception in these patients. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1007/s10072-019-03848-w) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Auditory Stimulation Modulates Resting-State Functional Connectivity in Unresponsive Wakefulness Syndrome Patients

“…This might be due to the fact that UWS patients need particular strong stimuli to be activated. The most salient brain activations in subjects with severe brain injuries are evoked by emotional stimuli such as the subject's own name (Wu et al, 2018 ), familiar voices (Di et al, 2007 ), preferred music (Okumura et al, 2014 ; Heine et al, 2015 ), and emotional sounds (Gao et al, 2019 ). The aversive auditory stimulation implemented in the present study represents a highly salient stimulus which is suitable to elicit responses in brain regions that have been linked to the processing of auditory stimuli and attention/arousal.…”

Applied potential of task-free event-related paradigms for assessing neurocognitive functions in disorders of consciousness

“…unexpected salient sounds ( Friedman et al , 2001 ; Simons et al , 2001 ). Not many studies have probed auditory P3a in patients with DoC, but the evidence so far suggests that the component is found more often in patients in MCS than with UWS ( Chennu et al , 2013 ; Gao et al , 2019 ; Wu et al , 2020 ). Larger amplitudes have been found in response to emotional stimuli compared to neutral ones ( Gao et al , 2019 ; Wu et al , 2020 ), and non-traumatic patients present with a more obvious frontal P3a than traumatic patients ( Wu et al , 2020 ).…”

Individualized music induces theta-gamma phase-amplitude coupling in patients with disorders of consciousness

“…This may be attributed to the fact that preferred music has the ability to evoke unique emotional experiences in each individual ( Vuilleumier and Trost, 2015 ; Luauté et al, 2018 ). Patients with DoC are more likely to be attracted to sensory stimulation that have an emotional component ( Gao et al, 2019 ), making it likely that emotional music may elicit broader and stronger brain activation. In addition, individualized music has been described as self-referential and familiar music that may evoke memories associated with specific musical experiences ( Kaiser and Berntsen, 2023 ).…”