Structuring cortical bistability in sleeping DOC parallels the recovery of consciousness

Last years the study of consciousness in both healthy people and DOC patients focused on the emerging properties of complex bidirectional thalamo-cortical connections; hence the study of sleep could be an optimal window to study thalamo-cortical circuits involved in consciousness and to verify the role of thalamo-cortical connectivity in the recovery of consciousness. Here, we aim at studying the EEG of a sample of patients with DOC in different recordings along the recovery of consciousness (VS, MCS and Exit From Minimally Conscious State, EMCS) to see how it changes in the different levels of consciousness.