What is consciousness? Where does it come from? How does it happen? These questions form one of the hotspots in the area of neuroscience. The disorder of consciousness (DOC), which is a state where consciousness has been affected by damage to the brain, offers a new perspective for scientists to explore further into the mystery of consciousness.
It is widely believed that large-scale neuronal oscillation forms the basis of consciousness. Evidence suggests that different levels of consciousness in DOC patients are related to different models of oscillatory brain activities, which are reflected in different shapes of EEG power spectra in the rest state. Patients in the vegetative state (VS, a.k.a unresponsive wakefulness syndrome, UWS) usually contain lower delta oscillations (frequency below 1 Hz), while those in the minimally conscious state (MCS) additionally have theta and weak beta oscillations, and the power spectrum contains typical alpha and beta oscillations, signifying the healthy brain or the brain that is almost recovering to normal after DOC. To make clear the relationship between neuronal activities and the level of consciousness is of great importance to understand the mechanisms of DOC, and also opens a window for discussing human consciousness.
To learn more about the connection between neuronal oscillations and consciousness, more external active perturbation approaches may be used in addition to passive methods. Among them is the use of non-invasive brain stimulation techniques, such as transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), and transcranial ultrasound (tUS). These techniques are painless, safe, inexpensive, and adaptable. They have recently gained a lot of attention as diagnostic and treatment tools for DOC patients.
Based on the decoded cerebral activities, brain-computer Interface (BCI) is a technology that enables communications between the brain and the external environment, either spontaneous or evoked. As it is not dependent on any peripheral neural or muscular activity, it is extremely promising for further research and application.
In this Research Topic, we would like to learn more about the close relationship between the characteristics of neural activities and the level of consciousness. We focus on the role of the abnormal oscillations as a DOC mechanism and their implications for novel DOC diagnostic and prognostic methods. Also, we welcome the discussions on the open challenges within the topic.
We are interested in Original Research, Case Study, and Review articles on the following topics, but are not limited to:
• Characteristics of neuronal oscillations at a different level of consciousness, their relationships to high-order functions based on rest-state brain activity, and any novel algorithms;
• Brain response to multisensory stimulation (such as smell, taste, sound, music) and its value to differential diagnosis and prognosis of DOC;
• Changes in neuronal signatures caused by invasive or non-invasive stimulations (such as TMS, tDCS, tACS, and tUS), especially those studies based on neuroentrainment;
• Innovative techniques and theories based on BCI for DOC diagnosis, prognosis, and recovery.
What is consciousness? Where does it come from? How does it happen? These questions form one of the hotspots in the area of neuroscience. The disorder of consciousness (DOC), which is a state where consciousness has been affected by damage to the brain, offers a new perspective for scientists to explore further into the mystery of consciousness.
It is widely believed that large-scale neuronal oscillation forms the basis of consciousness. Evidence suggests that different levels of consciousness in DOC patients are related to different models of oscillatory brain activities, which are reflected in different shapes of EEG power spectra in the rest state. Patients in the vegetative state (VS, a.k.a unresponsive wakefulness syndrome, UWS) usually contain lower delta oscillations (frequency below 1 Hz), while those in the minimally conscious state (MCS) additionally have theta and weak beta oscillations, and the power spectrum contains typical alpha and beta oscillations, signifying the healthy brain or the brain that is almost recovering to normal after DOC. To make clear the relationship between neuronal activities and the level of consciousness is of great importance to understand the mechanisms of DOC, and also opens a window for discussing human consciousness.
To learn more about the connection between neuronal oscillations and consciousness, more external active perturbation approaches may be used in addition to passive methods. Among them is the use of non-invasive brain stimulation techniques, such as transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), and transcranial ultrasound (tUS). These techniques are painless, safe, inexpensive, and adaptable. They have recently gained a lot of attention as diagnostic and treatment tools for DOC patients.
Based on the decoded cerebral activities, brain-computer Interface (BCI) is a technology that enables communications between the brain and the external environment, either spontaneous or evoked. As it is not dependent on any peripheral neural or muscular activity, it is extremely promising for further research and application.
In this Research Topic, we would like to learn more about the close relationship between the characteristics of neural activities and the level of consciousness. We focus on the role of the abnormal oscillations as a DOC mechanism and their implications for novel DOC diagnostic and prognostic methods. Also, we welcome the discussions on the open challenges within the topic.
We are interested in Original Research, Case Study, and Review articles on the following topics, but are not limited to:
• Characteristics of neuronal oscillations at a different level of consciousness, their relationships to high-order functions based on rest-state brain activity, and any novel algorithms;
• Brain response to multisensory stimulation (such as smell, taste, sound, music) and its value to differential diagnosis and prognosis of DOC;
• Changes in neuronal signatures caused by invasive or non-invasive stimulations (such as TMS, tDCS, tACS, and tUS), especially those studies based on neuroentrainment;
• Innovative techniques and theories based on BCI for DOC diagnosis, prognosis, and recovery.
