Functional neuroimaging of personally-relevant stimuli in a paediatric case of impaired awareness

Abstract

Background: 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.

Case study: 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.

Conclusion: This study provides preliminary support for fMRI as a method to measure preserved cognitive functioning in paediatric DOC patients.

• Brain imaging
• brain injury
• cognition
• consciousness
• paediatric
• neurology
• self-referential

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to the Cole family and to the Cole Neuroscience Center at the University of Tennessee Medical Center. The authors thank Russell Langdon, MD for his assistance with the patient’s mechanical ventilation during the fMRI scan. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not represent the official views of the United States Government, Department of Veterans Affairs, National Institutes of Health, or National Institute of Aging.