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Functional Connectivity Substrates for tDCS Response in Minimally Conscious State Patients.

ABSTRACT: Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a non-invasive technique recently employed in disorders of consciousness, and determining a transitory recovery of signs of consciousness in almost half of minimally conscious state (MCS) patients. Although the rising evidences about its possible role in the treatment of many neurological and psychiatric conditions exist, no evidences exist about brain functional connectivity substrates underlying tDCS response. We retrospectively evaluated resting state functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) of 16 sub-acute and chronic MCS patients (6 tDCS responders) who successively received a single left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) tDCS in a double-blind randomized cross-over trial. A seed-based approach for regions of left extrinsic control network (ECN) and default-mode network (DMN) was performed. tDCS responders showed an increased left intra-network connectivity for regions co-activated with left DLPFC, and significantly with left inferior frontal gyrus. Non-responders (NR) MCS patients showed an increased connectivity between left DLPFC and midline cortical structures, including anterior cingulate cortex and precuneus. Our findings suggest that a prior high connectivity with regions belonging to ECN can facilitate transitory recovery of consciousness in a subgroup of MCS patients that underwent tDCS treatment. Therefore, resting state-fMRI could be very valuable in detecting the neuronal conditions necessary for tDCS to improve behavior in MCS.

SUBMITTER: Cavaliere C

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5093112 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Functional Connectivity Substrates for tDCS Response in Minimally Conscious State Patients.

Cavaliere Carlo C Aiello Marco M Di Perri Carol C Amico Enrico E Martial Charlotte C Thibaut Aurore A Laureys Steven S Soddu Andrea A

Frontiers in cellular neuroscience 20161103

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a non-invasive technique recently employed in disorders of consciousness, and determining a transitory recovery of signs of consciousness in almost half of minimally conscious state (MCS) patients. Although the rising evidences about its possible role in the treatment of many neurological and psychiatric conditions exist, no evidences exist about brain functional connectivity substrates underlying tDCS response. We retrospectively evaluated resti ...[more]

PMID: 27857682

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Project description:IntroductionBehavioral and cerebral dissociation has been now clearly established in some patients with acquired disorders of consciousness (DoC). Altogether, these studies mainly focused on the preservation of high-level cognitive markers in prolonged DoC, but did not specifically investigate lower but key-cognitive functions to consciousness emergence, such as the ability to take a first-person perspective, notably at the acute stage of coma. We made the hypothesis that the preservation of self-recognition (i) is independent of the behavioral impairment of consciousness, and (ii) can reflect the ability to recover consciousness.MethodsHence, using bedside Electroencephalography (EEG) recordings, we acquired, in a large cohort of 129 severely brain damaged patients, the brain response to the passive listening of the subject's own name (SON) and unfamiliar other first names (OFN). One hundred and twelve of them (mean age ± SD = 46 ± 18.3 years, sex ratio M/F: 71/41) could be analyzed for the detection of an individual and significant discriminative P3 event-related brain response to the SON as compared to OFN ('SON effect', primary endpoint assessed by temporal clustering permutation tests).ResultsPatients were either coma (n = 38), unresponsive wakefulness syndrome (UWS, n = 30) or minimally conscious state (MCS, n = 44), according to the revised version of the Coma Recovery Scale (CRS-R). Overall, 33 DoC patients (29%) evoked a 'SON effect'. This electrophysiological index was similar between coma (29%), MCS (23%) and UWS (34%) patients (p = 0.61). MCS patients at the time of enrolment were more likely to emerged from MCS (EMCS) at 6 months than coma and UWS patients (p = 0.013 for comparison between groups). Among the 72 survivors' patients with event-related responses recorded within 3 months after brain injury, 75% of the 16 patients with a SON effect were EMCS at 6 months, while 59% of the 56 patients without a SON effect evolved to this favorable behavioral outcome.DiscussionAbout 30% of severely brain-damaged patients suffering from DoC are capable to process salient self-referential auditory stimuli, even in case of absence of behavioral detection of self-conscious processing. We suggest that self-recognition covert brain ability could be an index of consciousness recovery, and thus could help to predict good outcome.

Project description:The existence of normal sleep in patients in a vegetative state is still a matter of debate. Previous electrophysiological sleep studies in patients with disorders of consciousness did not differentiate patients in a vegetative state from patients in a minimally conscious state. Using high-density electroencephalographic sleep recordings, 11 patients with disorders of consciousness (six in a minimally conscious state, five in a vegetative state) were studied to correlate the electrophysiological changes associated with sleep to behavioural changes in vigilance (sustained eye closure and muscle inactivity). All minimally conscious patients showed clear electroencephalographic changes associated with decreases in behavioural vigilance. In the five minimally conscious patients showing sustained behavioural sleep periods, we identified several electrophysiological characteristics typical of normal sleep. In particular, all minimally conscious patients showed an alternating non-rapid eye movement/rapid eye movement sleep pattern and a homoeostatic decline of electroencephalographic slow wave activity through the night. In contrast, for most patients in a vegetative state, while preserved behavioural sleep was observed, the electroencephalographic patterns remained virtually unchanged during periods with the eyes closed compared to periods of behavioural wakefulness (eyes open and muscle activity). No slow wave sleep or rapid eye movement sleep stages could be identified and no homoeostatic regulation of sleep-related slow wave activity was observed over the night-time period. In conclusion, we observed behavioural, but no electrophysiological, sleep wake patterns in patients in a vegetative state, while there were near-to-normal patterns of sleep in patients in a minimally conscious state. These results shed light on the relationship between sleep electrophysiology and the level of consciousness in severely brain-damaged patients. We suggest that the study of sleep and homoeostatic regulation of slow wave activity may provide a complementary tool for the assessment of brain function in minimally conscious state and vegetative state patients.

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Functional Connectivity Substrates for tDCS Response in Minimally Conscious State Patients.

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Functional Connectivity Substrates for tDCS Response in Minimally Conscious State Patients.

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