Restoring Cortical Connectivity Directionality and Synchronization is Essential to Treating Disorder of Consciousness

Jose      Leon-Carrion; Umberto      Leon-Dominguez; James      Halper; Luca      Pollonini; George      Zouridakis; Maria   del Rosario   Domínguez-Morales

doi:10.2174/13816128113196660651

Abstract

The design of neurorehabilitation therapy to treat subjects with altered consciousness provides opportunities and challenges to professionals involved with the care for these severely ill patients. While there is an increased interest in determining methods to restore consciousness in these patients, the process is complex and challenging, due in part to the diverse aetiology of these states of consciousness, and also to the intricate cerebral connectivity involved in their treatment. The present case study examines a patient who showed signs of emergence from the vegetative state after neurorehabilitation using The Combined Method Therapy (CMT). In this case, neurorehabilitation therapy was applied simultaneously with pharmacological treatment, stimulation, and neuroimaging techniques to help adjust drug dosage. The results of this study suggest that this combined approach to treatment promoted connectivity among posterior and anterior cortical regions aiding emergence from the vegetative state.

Keywords: Vegetative state, severe neurocognitive disorder, consciousness, minimally conscious state, QEEG.

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