Leveraging meaning-induced neural dynamics to detect covert cognition via EEG during natural language listening—a case series

2025/07/08 by Ludvik Alkhoury, James O’Sullivan, G. Scanavini +10 · 1 voice
Neuroscience · Medicine · #EEG and Brain-Computer Interfaces #Traumatic Brain Injury Research #Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments

paper · pdf · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1616963

openalex publication_date 2025/07/08 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/23

Abstract

At least a quarter of adult patients with severe brain injury in a disorder of consciousness may have cognitive abilities that are hidden due to motor impairment. In this case series, we developed a tool that extracted acoustic and semantic processing biomarkers from electroencephalography recorded while participants listened to a story. We tested our method on two male adolescent survivors of severe brain injury and showed evidence of acoustic and semantic processing. Our method identifies cognitive processing while obviating demands on attention, memory, and executive function. This lays a foundation for graded assessments of cognition recovery across the spectrum of covert cognition.

Citations

• The JFK Coma Recovery Scale-Revised: Measurement characteristics and diagnostic utility11No commercial party having a direct financial interest in the results of the research supporting this article has or will confer a benefit upon the authors or upon any organization with which the authors are associated.
• BCI2000: A General-Purpose Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) System

Discussions

• 1of2) New paper from Ed Lalor in Frontiers in Psychology: Some people with severe brain injuries may still be conscious and able to understand what is being said to them, even if they can't move to re [bsky, 2 points, 1 comments]

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