Consciousness in Coma?

ISBN-13: 9783639172294 / Angielski / Miękka / 2009 / 164 str.

Jrme Daltrozzo

Opis

Are coma patients still able of cognition and emotionand to what extend? Such questions can beinvestigated with auditory Event-Related Potentials(ERPs) and Skin Conductance Response (SCR). Cognitivefunctions were tested with several paradigms in 44coma patients and emotional response in fifteen ofthem. In at least 7 % (N=44) of these patients anexplicit semantic processing and thus a minimalremaining consciousness could not be excluded. Thisstudy is the first to demonstrate semantic processingin coma. We found a correlation between emotional SCRand level of consciousness as measured by the GCS andthe Cook and Palma scores in agreement with the weakemotional SCR observed in these patients. Some ERPs,when observed in coma have also a prognosis value. Weconducted a meta-analysis on 337 to 612 patientsshowing that the N100, the Mismatch Negativity, andthe P300 predict awakening from coma. This workprovides new insights on the coma state and suggestsnew methods of assessment of these patients formedical practitioners.

O autorze

Jérôme Daltrozzo, Ph.D.: Physiology at Louis Pasteur University
of Strasbourg (France). Postdoc at INSERM U821, Lyon 1 University
(France)