In spite of medical advances and the increasing number of severely brain-injured patients, the assessment and treatment of patients recovering from coma remain challenging. For over 10 years now, the Coma Science Group has been working on the scientific exploration of disorders of consciousness, with both scientific and clinical research agendas. This book is the result of all this work. The aim is to offer both clinicians and researchers an opportunity to acquire expertise in a field which is constantly developing.

Besides diagnostic, prognostic and ethical issues, this book includes well-established findings on assessment techniques (i.e., behavioral scales, electrophysiological explorations and structural/functional neuroimaging) and treatment procedures, but also techniques under development (i.e., the use of classifiers, brain-computer interfaces, transcranial magnetic stimulation or deep brain stimulation) which will stimulate ideas for future research.

The Coma Science Group presents here a comprehensive book for readers, regardless of whether they are already familiar with the difficult but exciting field of disorders of consciousness.

Behavioral assessment and diagnosis of disorders of consciousness.- Prognosis of patients with altered state of consciousness.- Functional imaging and impaired consciousness.- Multivariate pattern recognition analysis: brain decoding.- Spectroscopy and diffusion tensor imaging in disorders of consciousness.- Electrophysiology and disorders of consciousness.- Brain computer interface: a communication aid?.- Using transcranial magnetic stimulation to measure cerebral connectivity in patients with disorders of consciousness.- Sleep in disorders of consciousness.- Sensory stimulation program.- Feasibility of oral feeding in patients with disorders of consciousness.- Pharmacological treatments.- Deep Brain Stimulation.- The ethics of managing disorders of consciousness.- Future perspectives of clinical coma science.