Perspectives on the Application of Neural Oscillations in the Diagnosis and Treatment of Consciousness Disorders

Abstract

The diagnosis and treatment of disorder of consciousness (DOC) is still challenging. One of the neural mechanisms of DOC is the destruction of synchronization and connectivity of neural oscillation. This article will review the progress of neural oscillation in the diagnosis and treatment of DOC from three aspects: theoretical basis, application progress, and existing deficiencies of neural oscillations applied to DOC. Neural oscillation is the periodic and synchronous activity of neurons under certain conditions. There are obvious differences in the spectrum characteristics, phase synchronization, and response to neural regulation of neural oscillations among different severities of DOC. The analysis of neural oscillation based on electroencephalography (EEG) reveals the information transmission and processing ability at different levels of consciousness, which is helpful to distinguish different degrees of DOC more accurately and achieve the purpose of DOC wakening treatment by regulating neuro oscillation. Despite there being some problems like insufficient mechanism studies and slow application transformation, neural oscillation has shown great application potential in the diagnosis and treatment of DOC.

Keywords

• consciousness disorders|neural oscillations|electroencephalography|review