(Weill Cornell Medicine) – With surprising frequency, patients with severe brain injury can show clear signs of cognitive function on brain scans in response to requests to carry out complex mental work, even when they can’t move or speak, according to an international study co-led by Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian investigators.
The study, published Aug. 14 in the New England Journal of Medicine, was the largest-ever investigation of the prevalence of this condition, which is called cognitive-motor dissociation.
The researchers observed that among 241 patients in a coma or vegetative state who could not make visible responses to bedside commands, one-fourth had sustained and relevant cognitive responses as shown on electroencephalography (EEG) readouts or functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans. CONTINUE