Altered functional connectivity of brainstem ARAS nuclei unveils the mechanisms of disorders of consciousness in sTBI: an exploratory study.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To investigate the functional connectivity (FC) characteristics of Ascending Reticular Activating System (ARAS) in patients with disorders of consciousness (DOC) following severe traumatic brain injury (sTBI), while introducing the Linear support vector machine (LSVM) to predict the recovery of consciousness.

Methods

Resting-state MRI was used to measure FC changes between the brainstem ARAS nuclei and whole-brain voxels. We compared the differences in FC between sTBI patients and healthy controls, as well as between the wake and DOC groups. Furthermore, the LSVM model for consciousness recovery was developed based on the Z-values of regions of interest (ROIs) and/or scale to distinguish the prognosis of sTBI patients.

Results

A total of 28 sTBI patients wit

SUBMITTER: Zhang P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12047610 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature