# Multidimensional Evaluation of Neural Dynamics in Patients with Disorders of Consciousness using EEG

> **NIH VA I21** · MINNEAPOLIS VA  MEDICAL CENTER · 2021 · —

## Abstract

Disorders of consciousness (DOC) are the result of a severe brain injury. These conditions have become more
frequent as advances in emergency medicine have led to a better survival rate after brain lesions. The
assessment of DOC patients at VA facilities relies primarily on observed motor output. However, this
assessment is often challenging due to the sensory, motor and cognitive disabilities resulting from the brain
injury. This issue is particularly critical since the diagnosis and prognosis has important ethical and medical
consequences in regard to the selection of care, treatment, and end-of-life decisions. Consequently, families of
DOC patients often struggle in making long-term decisions, and an alternative methodology could help them in
this process. For all of these reasons, there is a growing effort at several specialized centers around the world to
develop neurophysiological methods that could assist with the assessment of DOC patients. The current
perspective is that improving the evaluation of DOC needs a multidimensional approach in which several
neurophysiological markers are combined. The VA could play a significant role in this development by joining
the existing expertise within the VA of clinicians specialized in DOC and of neuroscientists specialized in the
analysis of neurophysiological signals and machine learning algorithms.
 Electroencephalography (EEG) provides high time-resolution signals of brain activity which makes it a
method of choice for evaluating the neural dynamics of willful brain activity. We plan to combine the effort of
the Emerging Consciousness Program from the Minneapolis and the San Antonio VA Health Care Systems to
perform a pilot study and acquire preliminary EEG data of neural activity from DOC patients. These data will
be compared to control subjects, both neurologically healthy and brain-lesioned patients without DOC. The
healthy controls will provide a reference of healthy neural dynamics, whereas brain-lesioned controls will
provide a reference of neural dynamics altered by brain lesions that does not affect conscious processing.
 The specific aims of this project are: (1) to create a collaborative interaction between members of the
Emerging Consciousness Program, the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center, and the Brain Sciences with
the scope of developing an EEG methodology for the evaluation of DOC patients. There has been no formal
collaboration until now between clinicians and therapists from the ECP and neuroscientists from the DVBIC
and the BSC. Such a collaboration would bring together complementary expertise within the VA in regard to
DOC and the analysis and decoding of neurophysiological signals in regard to developing a methodology using
EEG as a resource for the assessment of DOC patients. The current project would provide the first step for
actualizing such a collaboration; (2) to perform a pilot study to collect preliminary data for the development of
a future project aimed at t...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10359670
- **Project number:** 5I21RX003007-03
- **Recipient organization:** MINNEAPOLIS VA  MEDICAL CENTER
- **Principal Investigator:** GIUSEPPE PELLIZZER
- **Activity code:** I21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** VA
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** —
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-04-01 → 2022-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10359670

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10359670, Multidimensional Evaluation of Neural Dynamics in Patients with Disorders of Consciousness using EEG (5I21RX003007-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10359670. Licensed CC0.

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