{"id":330677,"date":"2025-05-05T12:48:52","date_gmt":"2025-05-05T17:48:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=330677"},"modified":"2025-05-04T21:39:29","modified_gmt":"2025-05-05T02:39:29","slug":"research-comatose-patients-hidden-signs-consciousness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/research-comatose-patients-hidden-signs-consciousness\/","title":{"rendered":"New research: Some comatose patients have hidden signs of consciousness"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

According to recent Columbia University research<\/a>, there is a hidden sign of consciousness in comatose patients that shows they can hear and understand what’s happening.<\/p>\n

Researchers analyzed<\/a> 226 recent comatose patients and discovered that individuals in a coma can have organized, fast frequencies in their overnight brain recordings, an indication of normal sleep patterns. These ‘sleep spindles’ appeared before doctors detected signs of ‘hidden consciousness’ in the patients.<\/p>\n

“We’re at an exciting crossroad in neurocritical care where we know that many patients appear to be unconscious, but some are recovering without our knowledge,” said lead author Jan Claassen, a professor of neurology and chief of critical care and hospitalist neurology at New York-Presbyterian\/Columbia University Irving Medical Center. “We’re starting to lift the lid a little bit and find some signs of recovery as it’s happening.”<\/p>\n

She noted that electrical activity during sleep looks “chaotic,” but in some patients, “organized” frequencies appear. The research will help doctors identify which patients with unresponsive brain injuries are likely to achieve long-term recovery, although the findings only apply to patients with new injuries.<\/p>\n

\u201cSpindles happen normally during sleep and they\u2019re showing some level of organization in the brain, suggesting circuits between the thalamus and cortex needed for consciousness are intact,” said Claassen.<\/p>\n

READ: \u2018Instant connection\u2019: Australian mom wakes from coma and meets her newborn baby<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Among those with sleep spindles and cognitive motor dissociation, 76% showed evidence of consciousness by the time they were discharged from the hospital. After a year, 41% had recovered neurological function with minor deficits or a moderate disability. However, of patients who did not experience sleep spindles or cognitive motor dissociation, only 29% showed signs of consciousness by the time they were discharged, and only seven percent (7%) regained neurological function after a year.<\/p>\n

According to Columbia University, this research doesn’t prove that inducing sleep spindles would lead to better outcomes, but it does show that improving a patient’s sleep may help their recovery. The environment of the intensive care unit may be preventing the good sleep they need.<\/p>\n

“Families of my patients ask me all the time, will my mother wake up? How is my mother going to look in three, six, or 12 months? Very often we cannot guide them very precisely, and it\u2019s crucial that we improve our predictions to guide their decision making,” said Claassen.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to recent Columbia University research, there is a hidden sign of consciousness in comatose patients that shows they can hear and understand what’s happening. Researchers analyzed 226 recent comatose patients and discovered that individuals in a coma can have organized, fast frequencies in their overnight brain recordings, an indication of normal sleep patterns. These […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":292946,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[4,3473],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nNew research: Some comatose patients have hidden signs of consciousness<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\""We know that many patients appear to be unconscious, but some are recovering without our knowledge," said the study's lead author.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/research-comatose-patients-hidden-signs-consciousness\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New research: Some comatose patients have hidden signs of consciousness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\""We know that many patients appear to be unconscious, but some are recovering without our knowledge," said the study's lead author.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/research-comatose-patients-hidden-signs-consciousness\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-05-05T17:48:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-05-05T02:39:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/GettyImages-1046447804-hospital-suicide.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"650\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Nancy Flanders\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Nancy Flanders\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/research-comatose-patients-hidden-signs-consciousness\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/research-comatose-patients-hidden-signs-consciousness\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Nancy Flanders\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/d61ca3dd1aacf12635bdf71d75c328ef\"},\"headline\":\"New research: Some comatose patients have hidden signs of consciousness\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-05-05T17:48:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-05-05T02:39:29+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/research-comatose-patients-hidden-signs-consciousness\/\"},\"wordCount\":397,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Issues\",\"Newsbreak\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/research-comatose-patients-hidden-signs-consciousness\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/research-comatose-patients-hidden-signs-consciousness\/\",\"name\":\"New research: Some comatose patients have hidden signs of consciousness\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-05-05T17:48:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-05-05T02:39:29+00:00\",\"description\":\"\\\"We know that many patients appear to be unconscious, but some are recovering without our knowledge,\\\" said the study's lead author.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/research-comatose-patients-hidden-signs-consciousness\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/research-comatose-patients-hidden-signs-consciousness\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/research-comatose-patients-hidden-signs-consciousness\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"New research: Some comatose patients have hidden signs of consciousness\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Live Action News\",\"description\":\"Covering Human Rights, Abortion, & Pro-Life Issues\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Live Action\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png\",\"width\":701,\"height\":710,\"caption\":\"Live Action\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/liveaction\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/liveactionorg\/\",\"https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/LiveActionFilms\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/LiveActionFilms\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/d61ca3dd1aacf12635bdf71d75c328ef\",\"name\":\"Nancy Flanders\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dee54060bdc22fdfbf36d946b3026cca?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dee54060bdc22fdfbf36d946b3026cca?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Nancy Flanders\"},\"description\":\"Nancy Flanders is Associate Editor for Live Action News. She has 25 years of experience writing and editing. For more than a decade, she has focused her work on pro-life issues through human interest stories and political issues regarding abortion and physician-assisted death as well as research articles and op-eds dismantling the lies of the pro-abortion, pro-death agenda. Her work has appeared in Catholic Digest, Pregnancy Help News, and a variety of other publications.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/author\/nancy\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"New research: Some comatose patients have hidden signs of consciousness","description":"\"We know that many patients appear to be unconscious, but some are recovering without our knowledge,\" said the study's lead author.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/research-comatose-patients-hidden-signs-consciousness\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"New research: Some comatose patients have hidden signs of consciousness","og_description":"\"We know that many patients appear to be unconscious, but some are recovering without our knowledge,\" said the study's lead author.","og_url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/research-comatose-patients-hidden-signs-consciousness\/","og_site_name":"Live Action News","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction","article_published_time":"2025-05-05T17:48:52+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-05-05T02:39:29+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":650,"url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/GettyImages-1046447804-hospital-suicide.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Nancy Flanders","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@liveaction","twitter_site":"@liveaction","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Nancy Flanders","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/research-comatose-patients-hidden-signs-consciousness\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/research-comatose-patients-hidden-signs-consciousness\/"},"author":{"name":"Nancy Flanders","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/d61ca3dd1aacf12635bdf71d75c328ef"},"headline":"New research: Some comatose patients have hidden signs of consciousness","datePublished":"2025-05-05T17:48:52+00:00","dateModified":"2025-05-05T02:39:29+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/research-comatose-patients-hidden-signs-consciousness\/"},"wordCount":397,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Issues","Newsbreak"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/research-comatose-patients-hidden-signs-consciousness\/","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/research-comatose-patients-hidden-signs-consciousness\/","name":"New research: Some comatose patients have hidden signs of consciousness","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website"},"datePublished":"2025-05-05T17:48:52+00:00","dateModified":"2025-05-05T02:39:29+00:00","description":"\"We know that many patients appear to be unconscious, but some are recovering without our knowledge,\" said the study's lead author.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/research-comatose-patients-hidden-signs-consciousness\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/research-comatose-patients-hidden-signs-consciousness\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/research-comatose-patients-hidden-signs-consciousness\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"New research: Some comatose patients have hidden signs of consciousness"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/","name":"Live Action News","description":"Covering Human Rights, Abortion, & Pro-Life Issues","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization","name":"Live Action","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png","width":701,"height":710,"caption":"Live Action"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction","https:\/\/twitter.com\/liveaction","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/liveactionorg\/","https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/LiveActionFilms\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/LiveActionFilms"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/d61ca3dd1aacf12635bdf71d75c328ef","name":"Nancy Flanders","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dee54060bdc22fdfbf36d946b3026cca?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dee54060bdc22fdfbf36d946b3026cca?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Nancy Flanders"},"description":"Nancy Flanders is Associate Editor for Live Action News. She has 25 years of experience writing and editing. For more than a decade, she has focused her work on pro-life issues through human interest stories and political issues regarding abortion and physician-assisted death as well as research articles and op-eds dismantling the lies of the pro-abortion, pro-death agenda. Her work has appeared in Catholic Digest, Pregnancy Help News, and a variety of other publications.","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/author\/nancy\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330677"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=330677"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":330709,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330677\/revisions\/330709"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=330677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=330677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=330677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}