Development of an fMRI-based communication protocol for unresponsive patients
Year: 2016
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Recent studies using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) have reported that a subset ofpatients suffering from Unresponsive Wakefulness Syndrome (UWS, or vegetative state) were able toreliably follow instructions and perform mental imagery or attention tasks. Based on these finding,efforts were directed towards developing a communication protocol based on command-following.However, only a handful of UWS patients managed to communicate successfully. The current studyaims to develop an fMRI-based communication protocol using simple motor commands (imaginemoving right hand and left foot). A single volunteer took part in the experiment. While inside thescanner, the participant was first instructed to imagine moving their right hand or left foot(command-following). The participant then answered a series of binary questions using motor imagery– imagine moving right hand to indicate ‘Yes’ and imagine moving left foot to indicate ‘No’. Overall,the results showed that the protocol can successfully decode a healthy participant’s answers to allquestions correctly. While promising, the protocol must be tested on actual UWS patients to validate its effectiveness.
Author: Li Ma
Language: English
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2472309700