Emotion Assessment to Study Consciousness in Awakening Patients

Summary

After a coma, one important challenge is the detection of awareness with patients with disorders of consciousness. For some patients, the only behavioral manifestation indicative of awareness is an appropriate emotional response. Studies show that the use of a particular conditioning - with delay - appears to be an objective solution to study the conscious perception of an emotion in none-communicating people. Until now, emotions of patients suffering disorder of consciousness (DOC) have been scarcely studied. It has been proved that some awakening patients have vegetative reactions following an emotional stimulus, but the investigator can't confirm whether or not the emotional experience of the patient is conscious.

The investigator's main purpose is to study emotional reactions from patients suffering a disorder of consciousness.

The investigator hypothesize that some patients have preserved reflexes reaction to the emotional stimuli while others could demonstrate a conscious emotional experience.

In order to answer these questions, the study is designed to record in a single session: (i) physiological vegetative reactions (electrodermal, pupillary responses and heart rate) to emotional stimuli both in DOC patients and healthy controls; (ii) a neurophysiological marker of consciousness; and (iii) physiological parameters during a trace conditioning experiment using auditory stimuli with and without emotional valence. The investigator plan to include patients vegetative patients (n=15); minimally conscious patients (n=15); acquired brain injured patients without conscious disorder (n=15) and healthy participants (n=15).

Conditions

• Persistent Vegetative State

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Physiological recording in response to different types of stimuli

In order to answer these questions, the study is designed to record in a single session: (i) physiological vegetative reactions (electrodermal, pupillary responses and heart rate) to emotional stimuli ; (ii) a neurophysiological marker of consciousness; and (iii) physiological parameters during a trace conditioning experiment using auditory stimuli with and without emotional valence.

BEHAVIORAL

EEG recording in response to different types of stimuli

In order to answer these questions, the study is designed to record in a single session: (i) physiological vegetative reactions (electrodermal, pupillary responses and heart rate) to emotional stimuli ; (ii) a neurophysiological marker of consciousness; and (iii) physiological parameters during a trace conditioning experiment using auditory stimuli with and without emotional valence.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Hospices Civils de Lyon

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Jacques LUAUTE, MD · Hospices Civils de Lyon

Study Design

Allocation

NON_RANDOMIZED

Purpose

DIAGNOSTIC

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

80 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2019-02-01

Primary Completion

2021-09-29

Completion

2021-09-29

Countries

• France

Study Locations