Topological disintegration of resting state functional connectomes in coma.
Neuroimage July 15, 2019 Brigitta Malagurski, Patrice Péran, Benjamine Sarton et al.
Graph theory is increasingly used to study brain networks and find neural correlates of consciousness, especially in patients recovering from severe brain injury. A challenge is that researchers must arbitrarily set a threshold to keep the strongest connections equal across subjects, which risks including false connections, particularly in brain disorders. Resting-state data from 25 coma patients and 22 healthy subjects were compared. A fixed density threshold of 10% was chosen based on healthy subjects' significant connections. Coma patients had fewer significant connections, with about 50% not meeting the threshold. The remaining patients showed preserved connectivity but major whole-brain network reorganization, highlighting the need for careful connectome construction in disorders of consciousness.