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Cerebral metabolism during vegetative state and after recovery to consciousness
  1. STEVEN LAUREYS,
  2. CHRISTIAN LEMAIRE,
  3. PIERRE MAQUET
  1. Cyclotron Research Centre, University of Liège, Sart Tilman, 4000 Liège, Belgium
  2. Institute of Cognitive Neurology, University College London, Alexandra House, 17 Queens Square, London WC1N3AR, England, UK
  3. Department of Neurology, CHU Liège Sart, Tilman B-35, 4000 Liège, Belgium
  1. Dr Pierre Maquet, Cyclotron Research Centre (B30), University of Liège, Sart Tilman, 4000 Liège, Belgium Telephone 0032 43 66 36 87; fax 0032 43 66 29 46; email maquet{at}pet.crc.ac.be
  1. CHRISTOPHE PHILLIPS
  1. Cyclotron Research Centre, University of Liège, Sart Tilman, 4000 Liège, Belgium
  2. Institute of Cognitive Neurology, University College London, Alexandra House, 17 Queens Square, London WC1N3AR, England, UK
  3. Department of Neurology, CHU Liège Sart, Tilman B-35, 4000 Liège, Belgium
  1. Dr Pierre Maquet, Cyclotron Research Centre (B30), University of Liège, Sart Tilman, 4000 Liège, Belgium Telephone 0032 43 66 36 87; fax 0032 43 66 29 46; email maquet{at}pet.crc.ac.be
  1. GEORGE FRANCK
  1. Cyclotron Research Centre, University of Liège, Sart Tilman, 4000 Liège, Belgium
  2. Institute of Cognitive Neurology, University College London, Alexandra House, 17 Queens Square, London WC1N3AR, England, UK
  3. Department of Neurology, CHU Liège Sart, Tilman B-35, 4000 Liège, Belgium
  1. Dr Pierre Maquet, Cyclotron Research Centre (B30), University of Liège, Sart Tilman, 4000 Liège, Belgium Telephone 0032 43 66 36 87; fax 0032 43 66 29 46; email maquet{at}pet.crc.ac.be

https://doi.org/10.1136/jnnp.67.1.121

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    One way to approach the study of consciousness is to explore lesional cases in which impairment of consciousness is the prominent clinical sign. Vegetative state is such a condition wherein awareness is abolished whereas arousal persists. It can be diagnosed clinically soon after a brain injury and may be reversible (as in the following case report) or progress to a persistent vegetative state or death. The distinction between vegetative state and persistent vegetative state is that the second is defined as a vegetative state that has continued or endured for at least 1 month.1 We present a patient who developed a vegetative state after carbon monoxide poisoning and in whom we had the opportunity to measure brain glucose metabolism distribution during the vegetative state and after recovery to consciousness. Using [18F]fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) PET and statistical parametric mapping (SPM) we compared both patient’s sets to a normal control population. Our findings offer an insight into the neural correlates of “awareness”, pointing to a critical role for posterior associative cortices in consciousness.

    Localisation of voxels in which cerebral glucose metabolism was impaired during vegetative state (in yellow) and after …

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