Back to Parent Page
Articles

Consciousness

HomeConsciousness
Consciousness

Stimulating Consciousness

Q&A with Martin Monti, Ph.D.

Determining if a brain-injured person is conscious can be difficult when that person cannot respond to your questions or show some outward sign. Dana Grantee Martin Monti is using targeted ultrasound to try to re-awaken dormant neurons.

Consciousness

Tracking the Neural Footprints of Consciousness

Two leading theories that are diametrically opposed are part of a new $20 million international research program to explore how consciousness arises and correlates in the brain.
Consciousness

Searching for Signs of Consciousness

Q&A with Jan Claassen, M.D.

Dana grantee Jan Claassen uses EEG to detect patterns of brain activity in people in coma who don’t physically respond to voice commands that suggest some may have “covert consciousness.”
painting of person on beach facing an oncoming tidal wave
Consciousness

Stretching the Boundaries of Near-Death

At a recent NYAS symposium, researchers describe methods to “extend the window of opportunity in which the brain can be salvaged”

illustration
Consciousness

Psychedelic Treatment for Consciousness Disorders?

If the complexity of a brain’s connections is a good measure of consciousness, and if psychedelics increase connectivity, could they help people in unconscious states like coma?
flower caught in ice that's melting
Consciousness

Redefining Death

Partial Revival of Pig Brains Raises Ethical and Existential Questions

Can brain cells be revived after death? Conventional wisdom says cells die quickly when deprived of oxygen, but researchers recently sparked cellular activity in brains of pigs killed hours earlier, raising new questions about our definitions of death.

Consciousness

The Struggle for Consciousness

Report from Neuroscience 2015

Connection to community and family should be a patient’s right, whether that person is fully conscious or minimally conscious, argued researcher Joseph Fins at the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting.
Consciousness

Disorders of Consciousness: Brain Death, Coma, and the Vegetative and Minimally Conscious States

Report on Progress

The authors present two scenarios on what are the disorders of consciousness: wakefulness, awareness, consciousness, coma, vegetative state, minimally conscious state, and brain death.
Consciousness

Seeking the Neural Signature of Consciousness

Cambridge researchers using EEG find network activity differs among minimally conscious patients, and the possibility of predicting the potential to communicate even in non-responsive people.
Consciousness

The Ethics of Unconsciousness

As technology advances to the point where doctors can communicate to some extent with minimally conscious patients, what should they be asking? Simply, "Do you need another pillow?" Or, "Do you want to die?"
displaying page
of 2

Explore More

Sign up for monthly email updates on neuroscience and society topics, grants, and upcoming events

Subscribe