fNIRS: A novel tool for detecting consciousness after acute severe brain injury

What is it about?

We have utilized functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS for short), which is a portable brain imaging tool to detect hidden consciousness and brain activity in unresponsive patients in the intensive care unit who have had a brain injury. We first tested this method on over 100 healthy data sets before using fNIRS in the ICU to detect preserved consciousness by recording brain activity in an entire unresponsive patient.

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Photo by BUDDHI Kumar SHRESTHA on Unsplash

Photo by BUDDHI Kumar SHRESTHA on Unsplash

Why is it important?

In the intensive care unit (ICU), unresponsive patients with acute brain injury may possess a higher level of consciousness than apparent at the bedside. Our study highlights the utility of functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), a portable optical neuroimaging device, in detecting neural correlates of conscious processing. We successfully identified resting-state networks, somatosensory and auditory processing, and command-driven brain activity at the individual level in healthy participants. Moreover, we applied fNIRS to detect preserved consciousness in three severely brain-injured ICU patients, revealing one patient with fully preserved awareness despite lacking behavioral signs of consciousness. This underscores the potential of fNIRS as a valuable tool for identifying hidden cognitive states in patients following serious brain injury.