Neural functions of the unconscious human brain
Neural functions of the unconscious human brain
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In auditory series where sound onset is synchronous to heartbeats, an unexpected sound omission elicits a surprise response in healthy participants unaware of the synchronicity rule. With the same paradigm, we observe a similar omission response in comatose patients.
The brain of a comatose patients can make the difference between repeated groups of sounds -global standards- and unfrequent ones -global deviants-. This phenomenon was observed in 10 of 24 post-anoxic comatose patients, and even during induced hypothermia and sedation.
The improvement over time of the neural response to frequent and unfrequent sounds predicts good outcome in comatose patients after cardiac arrest.
Prediction was further validated in a cohort of 94 patients. Within 51 patients for which outcome was uncertain within the first two days, 13 were corrected predicted as survivors by this test.
Progression of auditory discrimination during the first two days of coma is informative about cognitive outcome at awakening and correlates with coma duration.
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