During the past years, the number of survivors of severe brain injury has increased as a result of improvements in intensive care, which goes along with an increase in the number of patients who have been diagnosed with a disorder of consciousness. We can distinguish two types of disorders in consciousness: “If repeated examinations yield no evidence of a sustained, reproducible, purposeful, or voluntary behavioral response to visual, auditory, tactile, or noxious stimuli, a diagnosis of a vegetative state is made. Some patients remain in a vegetative state permanently. Others eventually show inconsistent, but reproducible signs of awareness, including the ability to follow commands, but they remain unable to communicate interactively. This is called a minimally conscious state.” (Monti, et al. 2010, p.580) The numbers of misdiagnosis in disorders of consciousness is nowadays set at a rate of approximately 40%. This was stated in the research “Willful Modulation of Brain Activity in Disorders of Consciousness” by Monti, et al. (2010) in the New England Journal of Medicine. The research was conducted with two main aims: the first aim was to determine the proportion of patients who are able to repeatedly and sound adjust their functional MRI responses. The second aim was to develop and validate a technique that would allow these patients to communicate by responding to yes or no questions with the use of their own brain activity.
The research involved a control group, 54 patients with disorders of consciousness and functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The control group included 16 healthy people with no history of a neurologic disorder and out of the 54 patients, there were 23 in a vegetative state and 31 in a minimall...
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...ally just a result of low sensitivity of the method. Finally, the cause of disorder of all the 5 patients that were able to wilfully adjust their brain activity, was TBI. No further research was done for this odd feature and neither was it explicitly mentioned in the research.
Concluding, the flaws in methodology were underdeveloped owing to the researchers not considering conducting further research. The researchers were too optimistic about their results and did not proceed and dig deeper on questions that arose after the results came in. To effectively apply this technique, there certainly needs to be more research done on the TBI issue. It could be the case that patients who are in a vegetative due to TBI have a higher chance of recovery than other patients. At this moment, I do not think this technique can be used to represent the state of mind of the patients
Three lines of evidence suggest that PVS patients are "noncognitive, nonsentient, and incapable of conscious experience [12]." First, motor and eye movement, and facial expressions in response to stimuli occur in stereotyped patterns rather than learned reactions. Second, positron emission tomography reveals cerebral glucose metabolism at a level far below those who are aware or in locked in states. PVS levels are comparable to those in deep general anesthesia and as such are totally unaware and insensate. Third, neuropathological examinations of PVS patients show "lesions so severe and diffuse [12]" that it would be almost impossible, giving our current understanding of neural an...
...however issues such as reliability, validity and bias occur when studying brain damaged patients therefore is not always a valid way of studying working memory (in Smith, 2007).
Based upon previous knowledge of brain function, what results from the testing were consistent with a brain injury?
The two brain scans show the contrast between a conscious patient and of a brain dead patient. The colourful or bright region in the normal conscious brain scan highlights areas which are active, preforming tasks such as, thinking, involuntary and voluntary movement. The image which shows brain death is completely black, suggesting no brain activity is taking place in comparison to a person with normal consciousness. The purple region around the brain represents the cerebral fluid around the brain.
Renner, T., Feldman, R., Majors, M., Morrissey, J., & Mae, L. (2011). States of Consciousness. Psychsmart (pp. 99-107). New York: McGraw-Hill.
There are many diseases and disorders that may affect the human mind. Some of these are serious, while others are minor and may not even be noticed. Some of the disorders and diseases to be covered in this report are delirium, dementia, and schizophrenia, also a discussion of specific symptoms and treatments available for the different disorders.
As previously stated, neuroimaging science and study began in the early 1900s. The “great granddaddy” of functional brain viewing is electroencephalography, or EEG, and was invented by a German researcher by the name of Hans Berger. This exceptional neurologist discovered that the electrical activity of the brain is detectable outside the head. Following Berger’s steps, a group of scientists came up with ...
The recent advances in non-invasive brain imaging, increased computational power, and advances in signal processing methods have heightened the research in this area. As we make progress in interpreting noninvasive brain signals in time we will begin to explore applications that go beyond treatment. But for now these noninvasive methods of estimating brain activity is still something to be cautious about since it only measures the brain’s blood, oxygen consumption, glucose utilization, and more. These measurements may not be accurate enough to figure out one person’s problem. The problem again might be internal and measuring only the obvious would not aid in figuring it all out.
Consciousness is a difficult term to grasp; so much so, that many scientists will not even attempt to define the term, much less search for it’s evidence. Most however, do agree that consciousness must include certain aspects; specifically cognition, self-awareness, memory, and abstract thought.
Our brains react differently during meditation or in an altered state of consciousness. Using fMRI scans; scientists have developed a more thorough understanding of what’s happening in the brain when one is meditating. The overall difference is that our brains stop processing information as actively as they normally would. A decrease in beta waves is seen, which could indicate that our brains are processi...
Kales, A. (1972). The evaluation and treatment of sleep disorders : Pharmacological and psychological studies. In M. Chase (ed.)The Sleeping Brain. Los Angeles : Brain Information Service.
14-Marcus A. Gray, Ludovico Minati, Neil A. Harrison, Peter J. Gianaros, Vitaly napadow, and Hugo D. Critchley. Physiological recording: Basic concepts and implemntation during functional magnetic resonance imaging. Neuroimage. 2009; 47(3-8): 1105-1115.
The altered states of consciousness produced by drugs presents an all-to-common phenomenon in today’s society. Whether the desired sensation comes in the form of energy, a means of relaxation, or pain reduction, many people go to great lengths and present their bodies to threatening conditions in order to achieve this euphoric “high.” Unfortunately, the use of these drugs very often comes with dangerous side effects that users must learn to manage with for the rest of their life. According to neuroscientists, our entire conscious existence bases itself off of the lighting-fast reactions occurring in our nervous system (Nichols, 2012). Therefore, changing these neurological reactions can permanently effect our conscious being (Blatter, 2012). The physical and neurological effects from the use and abuse of stimulants, sedatives, hallucinogens, organic solvents, and athletic performance enhancing drugs will be discussed in order to better comprehend why certain individuals expose themselves to such dangerous materials with seemingly no regard to the permanent consequences associated with such actions.
“Consciousness is defined as everything of which we are aware at any given time - our thoughts, feelings, sensations, and perceptions of the external environment. Physiological researchers have returned to the study of consciousness, in examining physiological rhythms, sleep, and altered states of consciousness (changes in awareness produced by sleep, meditation, hypnosis, and drugs)” (Wood, 2011, 169). There are five levels of consciousness; Conscious (sensing, perceiving, and choosing), Preconscious (memories that we can access), Unconscious ( memories that we can not access), Non-conscious ( bodily functions without sensation), and Subconscious ( “inner child,” self image formed in early childhood).
The mental status exam investigates global and limbic brain functions, left and right parietal functionality and language. This is achieved through tests such as, level of consciousness, memory, and language assessment (Blumenfeld, 2010). Yanagawa and Miyawaki (2012) highlight the importance of obtaining reports from witnesses to assist with a mental status examination. They state that pre-hospital patients can deteriorate quickly into unconsciousness, limiting the ability for para...