Article

OBJECTIVE: To explore whether the use of personally relevant stimuli, for some
tasks in the Coma Recovery Scale - Revised (CRS-R), generates more responses in
patients with prolonged disorders of consciousness compared with neutral stimuli.
DESIGN: Multiple single-case design. SUBJECTS: Three patients with prolonged
disorders of consciousness recruited from an inpatient department at a regional
brain injury rehabilitation clinic in Stockholm, Sweden. METHODS: Patients were
repeatedly assessed with the CRS-R. Randomization tests (bootstrapping) were used
to compare the number of responses generated by personally relevant and neutral
stimuli on 5 items in the CRS-R. RESULTS: Compared with neutral stimuli,
photographs of relatives generated significantly more visual fixations. A mirror
generated visual pursuit to a significantly greater extent than other
self-relevant stimuli. On other items, no significant differences between neutral
and personally relevant stimuli were seen. CONCLUSION: Personally relevant visual
stimuli may minimize the risk of missing visual fixation, compared with the
neutral stimuli used in the current gold standard behavioural assessment measure
(CRS-R). However, due to the single-subject design this conclusion is tentative
and more research is needed.

Langue : ANGLAIS