Brain Responses to Propofol in Advance of Recovery from Coma and Disorders of Consciousness: A Preliminary Study.

Predicting recovery of consciousness in unresponsive, brain-injured individuals has crucial implications for clinical decision-making. Propofol induces distinctive brain network reconfiguration in the healthy brain as it loses consciousness. In patients with disorders of consciousness, the brain network's reconfiguration to propofol may reveal the patient's underlying capacity for consciousness.

Brain network motifs are markers of loss and recovery of consciousness.

Motifs are patterns of inter-connections between nodes of a network, and have been investigated as building blocks of directed networks. This study explored the re-organization of 3-node motifs during loss and recovery of consciousness. Nine healthy subjects underwent a 3-h anesthetic protocol while 128-channel electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded.

Brain network motif topography may predict emergence from disorders of consciousness: a case series.

Neuroimaging methods have improved the accuracy of diagnosis in patients with disorders of consciousness (DOC), but novel, clinically translatable methods for prognosticating this population are still needed. In this case series, we explored the association between topographic and global brain network properties and prognosis in patients with DOC. We recorded high-density electroencephalograms in three patients with acute or chronic DOC, two of whom also underwent an anesthetic protocol.