Reconfiguration of large‐scale functional connectivity in patients with disorders of consciousness

摘要

Functional connectivity alterations within individual resting state networks (RSNs) are linked to disorders of consciousness (DOC). If these alterations influence the interaction quality with other RNSs, then, brain alterations in patients with DOC would be characterized by connectivity changes in the large‐scale model composed of RSNs. How are functional interactions between RSNs influenced by internal alterations of individual RSNs? Do the functional alterations induced by DOC change some key properties of the large‐scale network, which have been suggested to be critical for the consciousness emergence? Here, we use network analysis to measure functional connectivity in patients with DOC and address these questions. We hypothesized that network properties provide descriptions of brain functional reconfiguration associated with consciousness alterations.