In patients with severe brain injury, the neurological wake-up test—a brief interruption of sedation to check responsiveness—often yields ambiguous or absent behavioral responses, limiting its prognostic value. Recording 128-channel EEG from 41 such patients during propofol sedation interruption revealed that brain responses, measured by EEG power, spatial ratios, and the spectral exponent, can show signs of waking even when behavior does not. Combining EEG with behavioral assessment improved predictions of survival, recovery of consciousness, and long-term functional outcomes, outperforming the predictions of attending physicians. EEG can complement the wake-up test to better inform clinicians, families, and treatment planning.
In drug-free adults with narcolepsy type 1, successful dream recall after naps is linked to a more activated brain state during both REM and NREM sleep. Using scalp EEG, the study found that recall was associated with lower delta power over centro-parietal areas in both sleep stages, higher beta power in those areas during NREM, and a lower delta/beta ratio across most scalp locations during NREM. These results suggest that a more desynchronized, activated electrophysiological milieu promotes dream recall, and that parietal areas are important not only for generating dream experiences but also for the memory processes that enable recall.