Parallel EEG-fNIRS assessments of covert cognition in behaviorally non-responsive ICU patients: A multi-task feasibility study in a case of acute motor sensory axonal neuropathy.

Background: Repeat neurological assessment is standard in cases of severe acute brain injury. However, conventional measures rely on overt behavior. Unfortunately, behavioral responses may be difficult or impossible for some patients.

Age-associated differences in FIRES: Characterizing prodromal presentation and long-term outcomes via the web-based NORSE/FIRES Family Registry.

Febrile infection-related epilepsy syndrome (FIRES) is a rare clinical presentation of refractory status epilepticus following a febrile infection. This study analyzes data from the NORSE/FIRES Family Registry, an international web-based registry available in six languages with data entered by patients, families, and clinicians to explore clinical presentations, survivorship, and long-term outcomes in adult and pediatric FIRES patients. We characterize and examine differences in demographics, prodromal symptoms, seizure frequency, anti-seizure medications (ASMs), quality of life, cognition, mood, and anxiety in adults vs pediatric populations with FIRES.

Functional near-infrared spectroscopy: A novel tool for detecting consciousness after acute severe brain injury.

Recent advancements in functional neuroimaging have demonstrated that some unresponsive patients in the intensive care unit retain a level of consciousness that is inconsistent with their behavioral diagnosis of awareness. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is a portable optical neuroimaging method that can be used to measure neural activity with good temporal and spatial resolution. However, the reliability of fNIRS for detecting the neural correlates of consciousness remains to be established.

Detecting awareness after acute brain injury.

Advances over the past two decades in functional neuroimaging have provided new diagnostic and prognostic tools for patients with severe brain injury. Some of the most pertinent developments in this area involve the assessment of residual brain function in patients in the intensive care unit during the acute phase of severe injury, when they are at their most vulnerable and prognosis is uncertain. Advanced neuroimaging techniques, such as functional MRI and EEG, have now been used to identify preserved cognitive processing, including covert conscious awareness, and to relate them to outcome in patients who are behaviourally unresponsive.