Effects of a Vibro-Tactile P300 Based Brain-Computer Interface on the Coma Recovery Scale-Revised in Patients With Disorders of Consciousness

Persons diagnosed with disorders of consciousness (DOC) typically suffer from motor and cognitive disabilities. Recent research has shown that non-invasive brain-computer interface (BCI) technology could help assess these patients’ cognitive functions and command following abilities. 20 DOC patients participated in the study and performed 10 vibro-tactile P300 BCI sessions over 10 days with 8–12 runs each day. Vibrotactile tactors were placed on the each patient’s left and right wrists and one foot. Patients were instructed, via earbuds, to concentrate and silently count vibrotactile pulses on either their left or right wrist that presented a target stimulus and to ignore …

Performance Differences Using a Vibro-Tactile P300 BCI in LIS-Patients Diagnosed With Stroke and ALS

Performance Differences Using a Vibro-Tactile P300 BCI in LIS-Patients Diagnosed With Stroke and ALS

Patients with locked-in syndrome (LIS) are typically unable to move or communicate and can be misdiagnosed as patients with disorders of consciousness (DOC). Behavioral assessment scales are limited in their ability to detect signs of consciousness in this population. Recent research has shown that brain-computer interface (BCI) technology could supplement behavioral scales and allows to establish communication with these severely disabled patients. In this study, we compared the vibro-tactile P300 based BCI performance in two groups of patients with LIS of different etiologies: stroke (n = 6) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) (n = 9). Two vibro-tactile paradigms were administered to …

Assessing Command-Following and Communication With Vibro-Tactile P300 Brain-Computer Interface Tools in Patients With Unresponsive Wakefulness Syndrome

Persons diagnosed with disorders of consciousness (DOC) typically suffer from motor disablities, and thus assessing their spared cognitive abilities can be difficult. Recent research from several groups has shown that non-invasive brain-computer interface (BCI) technology can provide assessments of these patients' cognitive function that can supplement information provided through conventional behavioral assessment methods. In rare cases, BCIs may provide a binary communication mechanism. Here, we present results from a vibrotactile BCI assessment aiming at detecting command-following and communication in 12 unresponsive wakefulness syndrome (UWS) patients. Two different paradigms were admi…

Digitalized transcranial electrical stimulation: A consensus statement.

Objective: Although relatively costly and non-scalable, non-invasive neuromodulation interventions are treatment alternatives for neuropsychiatric disorders. The recent developments of highly-deployable transcranial electric stimulation (tES) systems, combined with mobile-Health technologies, could be incorporated in digital trials to overcome methodological barriers and increase equity of access. The study aims are to discuss the implementation of tES digital trials by performing a systematic scoping review and strategic process mapping, evaluate methodological aspects of tES digital trial designs, and provide Delphi-based recommendations for implementing digital trials using tES.Methods: …

MindBEAGLE — A new system for the assessment and communication with patients with disorders of consciousness and complete locked-in syndrom

Patients with disorders of consciousness (DOC) cannot reply to questions or clinical assessments using voluntary motor control, and therefore it is very difficult to assess their cognitive capabilities and conscious awareness. Patients who are locked-in (LIS) are instead fully conscious, and they can communicate with their preserved eye movements. However, when the residual oculomotor activity is also lost (e.g., patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis disease of very long duration), the locked-in status becomes complete (CLIS). In CLIS patients, detection of conscious awareness may become very challenging, similarly to the subjects with DOC. mindBEAGLE has a physiological testing batte…

The influence of temporal factors on automatic priming and conscious expectancy in a simple reaction time task.

In a previous study, we reported a dissociation between subjective expectancy and motor behaviour in a simple associative learning task (Perruchet, Cleeremans, & Destrebecqz, 2006). According to previous conditioning studies (Clark, Manns, & Squire, 2001), this dissociation is observed when the to-be-associated events coterminate and thus overlap in time (a training regimen called delay conditioning), but not when they are separated by a temporal delay (trace conditioning). In this latter situation indeed, there tends to be a direct relationship between subjective expectancy and behaviour. In this study, we further investigated this issue in a series of experiments where conscious …