ReviewBrain : a journal of neurology2018
Minimally conscious state or cortically mediated state?
Review in Brain : a journal of neurology, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 76 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
76 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Clinical neuromodulatory effects of deep brain stimulation in disorder of consciousness: A literature review.CNS neuroscience & therapeutics · 2024Pooled it
- The neurobiology of functional neurological disorders characterised by impaired awareness.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Pooled it
- Cognitive and neurophysiological effects of bilateral tDCS neuromodulation in patients with minimally conscious state.Scientific reports · 2025Trial
- Perturbational complexity index in assessing responsiveness to rTMS treatment in patients with disorders of consciousness: a cross-over randomized controlled trial study.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation · 2024Trial
- Multimodal prediction of residual consciousness in the intensive care unit: the CONNECT-ME study.Brain : a journal of neurology · 2023Trial
- Covert brain complexity in the intensive care unit.Cortex; a journal devoted to the study of the nervous system and behavior · 2026Article
- Esketamine Preserves Network Connectivity and Promotes Recovery in Consciousness Disorders.CNS neuroscience & therapeutics · 2026Article
- Multimodal multicentre investigation of diagnostic and prognostic markers in disorders of consciousness.Brain : a journal of neurology · 2026Article
- Disorders of consciousness diagnosis, interventions, and prognostication for the intensivist: Report of the 2025 ISICEM roundtable.Intensive care medicine · 2026Review
- Transcranial temporal interference stimulation of the thalamus in a patient with disorders of consciousness: a case report.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2026Article
- Covert consciousness: what's in a name?Brain : a journal of neurology · 2025Article
- Disorder of consciousness rather than complete Locked-In Syndrome for end stage Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: a case series.Communications medicine · 2025Article
- The role of etiology in the identification of clinical markers of consciousness: comparing EEG alpha power, complexity, and spectral exponent.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2025Article
- Detection of EEG dynamic complex patterns in disorders of consciousness.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Pupil constrictions to subjective brightness as a gateway to probe consciousness in non communicating patients.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Do some people with a prolonged disorder of consciousness experience pain? A clinically focused narrative review and synthesis.Clinical rehabilitation · 2025Review
- Assessing brain-muscle networks during motor imagery to detect covert command-following.BMC medicine · 2025Article
- Functional near-infrared spectroscopy for the assessment and treatment of patients with disorders of consciousness.Frontiers in neurology · 2025Review
- From scales to circuits: integrating behavioral diagnosis and neural biomarkers for improved classification in disorders of consciousness.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2025Article
- Altered oral microbiomes in patients with prolonged disorders of consciousness.Journal of oral microbiology · 2025Article
16 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Durable impairments of consciousness are currently classified in three main neurological categories: comatose state, vegetative state (also recently coined unresponsive wakefulness syndrome) and minimally conscious state. While the introduction of minimally conscious state, in 2002, was a major progress to help clinicians recognize complex non-reflexive behaviours in the absence of functional communication, it raises several problems. The most important issue related to minimally conscious state lies in its criteria: while behavioural definition of minimally conscious state lacks any direct evidence of patient's conscious content or conscious state, it includes the adjective 'conscious'. I discuss this major problem in this review and propose a novel interpretation of minimally conscious state: its criteria do not inform us about the potential residual consciousness of patients, but they do inform us with certainty about the presence of a cortically mediated state. Based on this constructive criticism review, I suggest three proposals aiming at improving the way we describe the subjective and cognitive state of non-communicating patients. In particular, I present a tentative new classification of impairments of consciousness that combines behavioural evidence with functional brain imaging data, in order to probe directly and univocally residual conscious processes.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.