Short latency somatosensory evoked potentials in brain dead patients.

Scalp-recorded, short latency somatosensory averaged evoked potentials to median nerve stimulation that arise in the brachial plexus and in central somatosensory afferent pathways were studied in 11 patients who fulfilled the clinical criteria for brain death. These potentials were compared with similar responses that have been recorded in normal subjects. Potentials that arise in central subcortical afferent pathways were recorded in seven of these patients. This suggests that these pathways are able to conduct impulses in some clinically brain dead patients.