Caregiver reactions to neuroimaging evidence of covert consciousness in patients with severe brain injury: a qualitative interview study

Table 2 Caregiver and patient characteristics

Caregiver	Relation to patient	Clinical diagnosis of patient	Time since injury	Main neuroimaging results	Covert consciousness
P1	Spouse	VS	5 yrs	No significant findings with EEG or fMRI	No evidence
P2	Mother	MCS	4.1 yrs	EEG revealed basic attentional capacity. fMRI data had movement artifacts and no conclusions could be drawn	No evidence
P3	Father	VS/MCS	17 yrs	EEG revealed basic attentional capacity and speech versus noise distinction. fMRI revealed visual and executive functions, and selective attention command following*	+
P4	Spouse	VS	1.2 yr	No significant findings with EEG. No fMRI tests performed	No evidence
P5	Spouse	VS/MCS	3.1 yrs	EEG revealed speech from noise distinction. fMRI revealed capacity for selective attention command following*	+
P6	Mother	VS	22 yrs	EEG revealed attentional capacity. fMRI revealed capacity for mental imagery, selective attention command following, and communication*	+
P7	Spouse	LIS	1 yr	EEG revealed basic attentional capacity. No fMRI tests were performed	Not evaluated due to clinical diagnosis
P8	Mother	VS	1 yr	EEG data had movement artifacts and no conclusions could be drawn. No fMRI tests were performed	No evidence
P9¹ & P9²	Father/Sibling	MCS/EMCS	1 yr	EEG revealed basic attentional capacity. No fMRI tests were performed	No evidence
P10	Father	VS	3 yrs	No significant findings with EEG. No fMRI tests were performed	No evidence
P11	Mother	VS	2 yrs	No significant findings with EEG. fMRI data had movement artifacts and no conclusions could be drawn	No evidence

VS = Vegetative State; MCS = Minimally Conscious State; EMCS = Emergence from the Minimally Conscious State; EEG = Electroencephalography; fMRI = Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging. All clinical diagnoses are derived from repeated evaluation with the CRS-R. Main neuroimaging results column summarizes the disclosure letter provided to caregivers. * denotes neuroimaging evidence of covert consciousness. Neuroimaging results are derived from research outlined in Table 1

ISSN: 1472-6939