Figure 1.

Correct evaluation of consciousness depends on the patient's behavior, which can be conceptualized as a product of arousal and motor output. Many patients with acute brain injury will only be aroused by certain stimuli and they lack motor output because of paralysis. In addition, their level of consciousness typically fluctuates with time. Thus, these patients are often wrongly believed to be unconscious. Our project CONNECT-ME will therefore employ serial and multimodal evaluations including state-of-the art fMRI and EEG technology in order detect covert consciousness in patients with acute brain injury. Adapted with permission from Kondziella et al. (1).