A Theoretically Based Index of Consciousness Independent of Sensory Processing and Behavior

One challenging aspect of the clinical assessment of brain-injured, unresponsive patients is the lack of an objective measure of consciousness that is independent of the subject's ability to interact with the external environment. Theoretical considerations suggest that consciousness depends on the brain's ability to support complex activity patterns that are, at once, distributed among interacting cortical areas (integrated) and differentiated in space and time (information-rich). We introduce and test a theory-driven index of the level of consciousness called the perturbational complexity index (PCI). PCI is calculated by (i) perturbing the cortex with transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to engage…

• JS
  James S. McDonnell Foundation

  Award: ARC 06/11-340
• MS
  Mind Science Foundation
• UD
  Università degli Studi di Milano

  Award: PUR 2009
• EC
  European Commission

  Awards: ICT-2011, FP7-ICT-2011-9, 600806, FP7-ICT, FP7-ICT-2011
• FD
  Fonds De La Recherche Scientifique - FNRS
• FL
  Fonds Léon Fredericq
• RL
  Regione Lombardia
• FI
  FP7 Information and Communication Technologies

  Award: 600806