Assessing Covert Consciousness in Unresponsive Patients
Status:
Unknown status
Trial end date:
1969-12-31
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
In this study, the investigators explore anesthesia as a tool for providing further insight
into the level of consciousness of individuals with a clinical diagnosis of unresponsive
wakefulness syndrome (UWS), but who possess some neurophysiological signatures of conscious
awareness. This group, who could potentially be conscious, will herein be referred to as the
target population. Our goal is to assess whether or not neurological patterns of
consciousness in the target population respond to anesthesia in a similar manner to
neurologically compromised individuals with known consciousness (e.g. those in minimally
conscious state (MCS). In healthy controls, propofol-induced unconsciousness results in an
elimination of the mismatch negativity event-related brain potential (ERP) and a diminished
directed connectivity. The investigators hypothesize that at doses well below those required
for surgery, anesthesia will have similar effects on these neural patterns in neurologically
compromised patients with the potential for conscious awareness, but will not affect these
patterns in those who lack consciousness.