Assessing consciousness in acute coma using name-evoked responses

Detecting consciousness in clinically unresponsive patients remains a significant challenge. Existing studies demonstrate that electroencephalography (EEG) can detect brain responses in behaviorally unresponsive patients, indicating potential for consciousness detection. However, most of this evidence is based on chronic patients, and there is a lack of studies focusing on acute coma cases. This study aims to detect signs of residual consciousness in patients with acute coma by using bedside EEG and electromyography (EMG) during an auditory oddball paradigm. We recruited patients with acute brain injury (either traumatic brain injury or cardiac arrest) who were admitted to the intensive care unit within two weeks after injury, with a Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score of 8 or below. Auditory stimuli included the patients' own names and other common names (referred to as standard names), spoken by the patients’ relatives, delivered under two conditions: passive listening (where patients were instructed that sounds would be played) and active listening (where patients were asked to move hands when heard their own names). Brain and muscle activity were recorded using EEG and EMG during the auditory paradigm. Event-related potentials (ERP) and EMG spectra were analyzed and compared between responses to the subject’s own name and other standard names in both passive and active listening conditions. A total of 22 patients were included in the final analysis. Subjects exhibited enhanced ERP responses when exposed to their own names, particularly during the active listening task. Compared to standard names or passive listening, distinct differences in brain network connectivity and increased EMG responses were detected during active listening to their own names. These findings suggest the presence of residual consciousness, offering the potential for assessing consciousness in behaviorally unresponsive patients.