A new hope has emerged in predicting the recovery of comatose patients, thanks to scientists who examined dozens of electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings and found the presence of sleep spindles – brief bursts of brain activity during sleep.
As it happens, researchers from Columbia University and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital now believe that brain waves associated with sleep may help predict recovery of consciousness in unresponsive patients with severe brain injury, according to a report from March 7.
Sleep spindles suggest brain activity
Specifically, they noted that the presence of sleep spindles during non-REM sleep, playing a role in memory consolidation and neural communication, indicates that certain brain circuits, particularly those connecting the thalamus and cortex, remain operational.
In fact, they identified well-defined sleep spindles in about one-third of the comatose patients, observing they were more common in those with cognitive motor dissociation and appeared to precede signs of consciousness detected by more complex EEG testing.
This discovery may help better identify the patients who appear unresponsive but have retained some level of hidden consciousness after a brain injury and therefore predict their recovery potential with more certainty. According to Dr. Jan Claassen, one of the study authors:
“The electrical activity during sleep looks relatively chaotic, and then occasionally in some patients, these very organized, fast frequencies appear.”
Predictive results
Indeed, patients demonstrating both sleep spindles and cognitive motor dissociation were more likely to recover. According to hospital records, 76% of these patients showed signs of consciousness. One year later, 41% had regained neurological function and could perform daily tasks with minimal assistance.
By comparison, only 7% of individuals without detectable spindles or cognitive motor dissociation achieved similar recovery outcomes. Still, the small percentage as it is, did not rule out the possibility of improvement, emphasizing the need for additional predictive measures.
Furthermore, the study doesn’t establish a causal relationship between sleep spindles and recovery, but it does raise the possibility that improving sleep conditions in the typically noisy intensive care units could support better brain recovery.
Dr. Claassen also noted that:
“I see these spindles as a way to direct more sophisticated testing to the patients most likely to benefit. The techniques are not ready for use in clinical practice yet, but this is something that we’re actively working on right now.”
Meanwhile, scientists keep uncovering new ways to provide hope for patients with various conditions, including developing a DNA method for quicker onsite diagnosis of bacterial infections, identifying how Greenland’s 400-year-old sharks remain cancer-free, and creating an artificial intelligence (AI) tool for instant glaucoma screening – just to name a few.
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