Restoring consciousness with vagus nerve stimulation
| Autor: | Nathalie André-Obadia, Gianluca Deiana, Angela Sirigu, Jacques Luauté, Michel Desmurget, L. Tell, Guillaume Lio, Arthur Lefevre, Marc Guénot, Pierre Bourdillon, Martina Corazzol |
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| Rok vydání: | 2017 |
| Předmět: |
0301 basic medicine
Consciousness Vagus Nerve Stimulation medicine.medical_treatment media_common.quotation_subject Spontaneous recovery Thalamus Brain damage Biology General Biochemistry Genetics and Molecular Biology White matter 03 medical and health sciences 0302 clinical medicine Cortex (anatomy) medicine Humans media_common Persistent Vegetative State 030104 developmental biology medicine.anatomical_structure Brainstem medicine.symptom General Agricultural and Biological Sciences Neuroscience 030217 neurology & neurosurgery Vagus nerve stimulation |
| Zdroj: | Current biology : CB. 27(18) |
| ISSN: | 1879-0445 |
| Popis: | Summary Patients lying in a vegetative state present severe impairments of consciousness [1] caused by lesions in the cortex, the brainstem, the thalamus and the white matter [2]. There is agreement that this condition may involve disconnections in long-range cortico–cortical and thalamo-cortical pathways [3]. Hence, in the vegetative state cortical activity is ‘deafferented' from subcortical modulation and/or principally disrupted between fronto-parietal regions. Some patients in a vegetative state recover while others persistently remain in such a state. The neural signature of spontaneous recovery is linked to increased thalamo-cortical activity and improved fronto-parietal functional connectivity [3]. The likelihood of consciousness recovery depends on the extent of brain damage and patients' etiology, but after one year of unresponsive behavior, chances become low [1]. There is thus a need to explore novel ways of repairing lost consciousness. Here we report beneficial effects of vagus nerve stimulation on consciousness level of a single patient in a vegetative state, including improved behavioral responsiveness and enhanced brain connectivity patterns. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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