ArticleBrain : a journal of neurology2025
Covert consciousness: what's in a name?
Article in Brain : a journal of neurology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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
6 citing papers in PubMed.
- The Efficacy of Individualized Music Therapy in Patients With MCS: A Pilot Study on EEG.Neural plasticity · 2026Trial
- Common Consent Elements for Research Involving Persons with Disorders of Consciousness (CCE-DOC).Neurocritical care · 2026Article
- From fMRI to Family Meeting: Clinician and Family Perspectives on Neurotechnology-Informed Shared Decision-Making in Disorders of Consciousness.Neurocritical care · 2026Article
- Ethical Considerations in Transcranial Focused Ultrasound Neuromodulation for Disorders of Consciousness.Neuromodulation : journal of the International Neuromodulation Society · 2026Article
- Article
- Early Detection of Covert Consciousness With Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy.Annals of neurology · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Over the past decade, it has become apparent that up to 25% of behaviourally unresponsive patients with acute or chronic disorders of consciousness reveal high spatio-temporal complexity following a direct electrical or magnetic pulse to the brain, highly differentiated EEG responses or voluntary modulation of their brain activity on command, each of which has been interpreted, to varying degrees, as evidence of consciousness. Practitioners designate this phenomenon using a dizzying variety of terms. The realization that 'unresponsiveness' does not equate to 'unconsciousness' changes how patients should be assessed and how the medical team communicates with them, their families and the world at large. We propose that the term 'covert consciousness' be used in all such communications to designate this subcategory of behaviourally unresponsive patients, with context-appropriate qualifiers and counselling accompanying its use.
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What OpenQuestion holds
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.