ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Hum. Neurosci.
Sec. Brain Imaging and Stimulation
Volume 19 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2025.1640520
Discriminative Power of Diverse Nonlinear EEG Dynamics Across Consciousness States During Auditory Stimulation in Disorders of Consciousness
Provisionally accepted
- The Second Hospital of Shandong University, Jinan, China
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Objective: This study addressed the challenge of assessing consciousness in patients with disorders of consciousness (DOC) using nonlinear dynamic parameters applied to electroencephalogram (EEG) characteristics stimulated by music. Method: EEG signals from 57 patients with DOC at the Rehabilitation Medical Center of the Second Hospital of Shandong University were analyzed using the Lyapunov Exponent (LE), Approximate Entropy (ApEn), Lempel–Ziv Complexity (LZC), and Correlation Dimension (D2). These parameters were then correlated with the total CRS-R score to evaluate their effectiveness. The results indicated that preferred music significantly improved cortical excitability in minimally conscious state (MCS) patients, as evidenced by the ApEn, LZC, and D2 algorithms, but had no significant effect on vegetative state (VS)/unresponsive wakefulness syndrome (UWS) patients. Results: LE, however, showed significant responsiveness in the frontal and middle temporal lobes of patients with VS/UWS. Correlation analysis revealed significant associations between changes in ApEn, LZC, and D2 due to musical stimulation and the total CRS-R score, whereas the LE showed no such correlation. Conclusion: ApEn, LZC, and D2 are valuable for assessing and distinguishing conscious states in patients with DOC, with LE providing supplementary information for patients with VS/UWS. Nonlinear EEG parameters offer promising reference values for effective clinical interventions in DOC.
Keywords: disorder of consciousness, Electroencephalogram, auditory stimuli, Lyapunov exponent, Approximate Entropy, Lempel–Ziv complexity, correlation dimension
Received: 06 Jun 2025; Accepted: 18 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Tang, Sheng, Wu and Zeng. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Fanshuo Zeng, The Second Hospital of Shandong University, Jinan, China
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