Nicholas Christopher R, McLaren Donald G, Gawrysiak Michael J, Rogers Baxter P, Dougherty John H, Nash Michael R
Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center (GRECC), William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital , Madison, WI , USA .
Brain Inj. 2014;28(8):1135-8. doi: 10.3109/02699052.2014.890745. Epub 2014 Mar 21.
Functional neuroimaging studies have observed preserved neural activation to personally relevant stimuli in patients within the disorders of consciousness (DOC) spectrum. As the majority of studies have focused on adult DOC patients, little is known about preserved activation in the developing brain of children with impaired consciousness.
The aim of this study is to use fMRI to measure preserved neural activation to personally relevant stimuli (subject's own name and familiar voice) in a paediatric patient who sustained a traumatic brain injury and anoxic-ischaemia following a motor vehicle accident at 18 months of age rendering her probable for minimally conscious state. Contrasts revealed activation in the right middle frontal gyrus when hearing the subject's own name and the anterior supramarginal gyrus when hearing a familiar voice.
This study provides preliminary support for fMRI as a method to measure preserved cognitive functioning in paediatric DOC patients.
功能神经影像学研究观察到，意识障碍（DOC）谱系中的患者对个人相关刺激仍有神经激活。由于大多数研究集中于成年DOC患者，对于意识受损儿童发育中的大脑中保留的激活情况知之甚少。
本研究的目的是使用功能磁共振成像（fMRI）来测量一名儿科患者对个人相关刺激（受试者自己的名字和熟悉的声音）的保留神经激活情况。该患者在18个月大时因机动车事故导致创伤性脑损伤和缺氧缺血，可能处于最低意识状态。对比显示，听到受试者自己的名字时右侧额中回激活，听到熟悉的声音时颞上回前部激活。
本研究为fMRI作为测量儿科DOC患者保留认知功能的方法提供了初步支持。
