| Autor: |
Nigri A; Neuroradiology Department, Neurological Institute 'Carlo Besta', IRCCS Foundation, Via Celoria 11, 20133, Milan, Italy., Catricalà E; School of Advanced Studies IUSS, Pavia, Italy., Ferraro S; Neuroradiology Department, Neurological Institute 'Carlo Besta', IRCCS Foundation, Via Celoria 11, 20133, Milan, Italy. stefania.ferraro@istituto-besta.it., Bruzzone MG; Neuroradiology Department, Neurological Institute 'Carlo Besta', IRCCS Foundation, Via Celoria 11, 20133, Milan, Italy., D'Incerti L; Neuroradiology Department, Neurological Institute 'Carlo Besta', IRCCS Foundation, Via Celoria 11, 20133, Milan, Italy., Sattin D; Neurology, Public Health and Disability Unit, Scientific Department, Neurological Institute 'Carlo Besta', IRCCS Foundation, Milan, Italy., Sebastiano DR; Neurophysiopathology and Epilepsy Centre, Neurological Institute 'Carlo Besta', IRCCS Foundation, Milan, Italy., Franceschetti S; Neurophysiopathology and Epilepsy Centre, Neurological Institute 'Carlo Besta', IRCCS Foundation, Milan, Italy., Marotta G; Department of Nuclear Medicine, Ca' Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, IRCCS Foundation, Milan, Italy., Benti R; Department of Nuclear Medicine, Ca' Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, IRCCS Foundation, Milan, Italy., Leonardi M; Neurology, Public Health and Disability Unit, Scientific Department, Neurological Institute 'Carlo Besta', IRCCS Foundation, Milan, Italy., Cappa SF; School of Advanced Studies IUSS, Pavia, Italy.; Division of Neuroscience, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milan, Italy. |
| Abstrakt: |
There is a growing interest in the use of functional imaging to assess brain activity in the absence of behavioural responses in patients with disorders of consciousness (DOC). In the present study, we applied a hierarchical auditory stimulation paradigm to functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) in a group of long-term DOC adult patients. Brain response to pairs of pseudowords, of unrelated words and of semantically related words, i.e. stimuli differing in lexical status (words vs. pseudowords) and semantic relatedness (related vs. unrelated) was assessed. The former contrast was considered to reflect the automatic brain response to the passive presentation of meaningful real words, while the latter aimed to assess the response to meaning relationships. The results of the study indicate that automatic lexical processing can be observed in minimally conscious state (MCS), but also in vegetative state/unresponsive wakefulness syndrome (VS/UWS) patients, as indicated by increase in blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) activity in the linguistic networks. DOC patients, for some task conditions, recruited additional areas in comparison to healthy participants. Furthermore this study provides additional evidence of the potential role of fMRI in the assessment of residual cognitive processing in some of these patients, which may not be evident at the clinical level. |
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