Autonomic correlates of seeing one's own face in patients with disorders of consciousness.

ABSTRACT: The ability to recognize one's own face is a hallmark of self-awareness. In healthy subjects, the sympathetic skin response evoked by self-face recognition has a greater area under the curve of the signal than responses evoked by other visual stimuli. We evaluated the sympathetic skin responses evoked by self-face images and by six other visual stimuli (conditions) in 15 patients with severe disorders of consciousness and in 15 age-matched healthy subjects. Under all conditions, the evoked area of the sympathetic skin response was smaller in patients with unresponsive wakefulness syndrome, intermediate in patients in a minimally conscious state, and greater in healthy subjects. In patients with unresponsive wakefulness syndrome, no differences were found between the sympathetic skin respon

SUBMITTER: Bagnato S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6307552 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature