Recovery of Cognitive and Behavioural Function During Long-term Inpatient Rehabilitation in Patients with Moderate-To-Severe Traumatic Brain Injury: Evaluation of a Retrospective Case Series.

Objective: To elucidate the characteristics of recovery progression during long-term rehabilitation after moderate-to-severe traumatic brain injury.

Methods: Longitudinal changes in consciousness, swallowing disorders, activities of daily living, and psychological and behavioural status were studied in 7 patients with moderateto-severe traumatic brain injury, using scores of the National Agency for Automotive Safety & Victim's Aid (NASVA score), Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS), Dysphagia Severity Scale (DSS), Eating Status Scale (ESS), Functional Independence Measure (FIM), Cognitive-related Behavioural Assessment (CBA), and Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI). Scores were collected every month until discharge (median 359 days after injury), or until the study end date for those patients who remained hospitalized (432 days).

Quantitative Evaluation of Facial Expression in a Patient With Minimally Conscious State After Severe Traumatic Brain Injury.

Objective: To investigate whether automatic facial expression analysis can quantify differences in the intensity of facial responses depending on the affective stimuli in a patient with minimally conscious state (MCS).

Methods: We filmed the facial responses of a patient with MCS during the delivery of three 1-minute auditory stimuli: audio clips of comedy movies, a nurse hilariously talking, and recitation of a novel (comedy, nurse, and recitation conditions, respectively). These measures were repeated at least 13 times for each condition on different days for approximately 10 months.