ObjectiveTo analyze quantitative electroencephalographic (EEG) characteristics during Motor Imagery Brain-Computer Interface (MI-BCI) task in patients with prolonged disorders of consciousness (pDoC).MethodsForty-three patients with pDoC due to various brain injuries were enrolled. Based on modified Coma Recovery Scale-Revised (CRS-R) assessments, the patients were divided into 19 in the unresponsive wakefulness syndrome (UWS) group and 24 in the minimally conscious state (MCS) group. All patients underwent 5 min of resting-state (RS) EEG followed by 5 min of MI-BCI task. Relative power, DTABR, and average brain engagement (BE) during MI-BCI were analyzed across resting and MI-BCI states using Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) spectra.ResultsMixed-design ANOVA showed significant main effects of condition and group across all EEG frequency bands, indicating clear differences between the RS and MI-BCI conditions and between UWS and MCS patients. Significant group × condition interactions were found in the delta, beta, and gamma bands, as well as in DTABR. Simple effects analysis showed that delta power was higher in RS than in MI-BCI in both groups, with UWS consistently exhibiting higher delta power than MCS under both conditions. In contrast, beta and gamma power were higher in MI-BCI than in RS in both groups. For beta power, UWS was higher than MCS under RS, whereas MCS was higher than UWS under MI-BCI, showing a reversal of the interaction pattern. For gamma power, MCS showed higher values than UWS under both conditions, with a larger between-group difference during MI-BCI. DTABR was significantly higher in RS than in MI-BCI in both groups; however, MCS exhibited higher DTABR than UWS under RS, whereas the opposite pattern was observed under MI-BCI. In addition, during MI-BCI tasks, the MCS group showed greater average BE than the UWS group.ConclusionMI-BCI shows potential as a diagnostic or assessment tool for evaluating the level of consciousness in patients with pDoC.
Radically different