Uncovering Covert Consciousness: De-Mystifying a New Clinical Entity

Friday, February 23, 2024

2:00 PM – 3:00 PM EDT

Location: Sebastian L4

Course Director(s)

Jennifer Russo, MD (she/her/hers)

Assistant Professor, Associate Program Director Brain Injury Medicine Fellowship
Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation

Slides

Speaker(s)

Neil Jasey, MD

Attending Physiatrist
Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation
Rachel Murray, MD (she/her/hers)

Resident Physician
Kessler Institute of Rehabilitation, Rutgers NJMS
Jing Lin, MD (she/her/hers)

Brain Injury Fellow
Rutgers New Jersey Medical School/ Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation
Lindsey Gurin, M.D.

Attending
NYU

Covert Consciousness is the presence of retained consciousness not apparent on standard behavior-based assessments. It includes entities such as locked-in syndrome, disorders of motivation such as akinetic mutism and catatonia, and impairments in motor control such as those from severe upper motor neuron syndrome. In this session, we will introduce the concept of covert consciousness, review the literature describing this clinical entity and other associated terms, and discuss the various methods under investigation to better identify retained consciousness in brain-injured patients.