Functional neuroimaging and electrophysiology studies are changing our understanding of
patients with coma and related states. Some severely brain damaged patients may show …

Background: Spasticity following a stroke occurs in about 30% of patients. The mechanisms
underlying this disorder, however, are not well understood. Method: This review aims to …

… perception of LIS show that in 97 interviewed health-care workers the majority (66%)
considered that “being LIS is worse than being in a vegetative or minimally conscious state” (Bruno …

One challenging aspect of the clinical assessment of brain-injured, unresponsive patients is
the lack of an objective measure of consciousness that is independent of the subject’s ability …

The ‘default network’ is defined as a set of areas, encompassing posterior-cingulate/precuneus,
anterior cingulate/mesiofrontal cortex and temporo-parietal junctions, that show more …

Background Mechanisms of anesthesia-induced loss of consciousness remain poorly
understood. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging allows investigating whole-…

Frontoparietal cortex is involved in the explicit processing (awareness) of stimuli.
Frontoparietal activation has also been found in studies of subliminal stimulus processing. We …

Background Bedside clinical examinations can have high rates of misdiagnosis of unresponsive
wakefulness syndrome (vegetative state) or minimally conscious state. The diagnostic …

… For example, in a recent study of second readings performed by experienced abdominal
imaging radiologists from Massachusetts General Hospital, in which leading radiologists …

Patients surviving severe brain injury may regain consciousness without recovering their
ability to understand, move and communicate. Recently, electrophysiological and …