Beneficial Effects of Music on Cognition and Consciousness Level

Not Applicable

Completed

Brief Summary: Exposure to music improves cognitive function in 'healthy' participants and in brain-damaged patients. However, it is still difficult to understand what precisely in music causes a positive effect : are they emotional components, familiarity or preference which improve cognition or is there any specific effect of music? Moreover, it is not yet possible to characterize the neural and functional links between the brain systems solicited by music and those associated with other cognitive functions enhanced by music.

Finally, researches on brain-damaged patients have not exploited the potential effect of music on the level of alert and perceptual awareness, while this type of stimulation could be a valuable tool to improve cognition in patients with a disturbance of consciousness and alertness.

The main objective is to describe the impact of music on the brain's response to self-referential or neutral stimuli in brain-damaged patients with persistent consciousness disorder after a coma and in healthy participants.

Recruitment & Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria

Disorders of consciousness (Traumatic brain injury, stroke or anoxic encephalopathy)
Coma diagnosis (Plum and Posner, 1966), vegetative state (Task Force, 1994) or minimally conscious state (Giacino, Ashwal et al. 2002)
Lack of autonomic crisis since one week minimum
Medical condition considered stable
Patients who do not present hearing loss. Peaks I and II of Brainstem Auditory Evoked Potentials (BAEP) will be normal.

Exclusion Criteria

Healthy participants :

Inclusion Criteria:

Exclusion Criteria:

Hearing problems and / or hearing loss higher than 30 decibels Hearing Level (dB HL) at a frequency band from 250 to 8000 Hz
Neurological disorders
Pregnant or likely to be (interrogation data) or breastfeeding woman

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Healthy volunteers	Electroencephalography (EEG)	Electroencephalography (EEG) will be performed in healthy participants to assess the P300 response and medial prefrontal cortex activity after different auditive stimulations
Brain-damaged patients	Electroencephalography (EEG)	Electroencephalography (EEG) will be performed in patients in coma, in a vegetative state or in a minimally conscious state to assess the P300 response after different auditive stimulations

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
P300 response in brain-damaged patients	24 hours after inclusion	Improvement of the P300 response (increase in amplitude and / or a decrease in latency) to the first name pronunciation will be assessed in patients in coma, in a vegetative state or in a minimally conscious state, when it is preceded by a favorite or familiar sound (music, language, environmental noise) and / or a positive emotional connotation, compared to a control condition (unfamiliar sound and / or neutral emotional connotation). This improvement in brain response will be the sign of a more efficient categorization of patient's own name.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
P300 response in brain-damaged patients	24 hours after inclusion	Increase of the P300 response (increase in amplitude and / or a decrease in latency) to a self-referential stimulation (e.g. name pronunciation) will be assessed when the patient is awake (according to EEG measures and / or eye opening) compared to when the patient is asleep (according to EEG measures and / or eye closure).
Medial prefrontal cortex activity level in healthy volunteers	24 hours after inclusion	Increase of the level of activity measured in the medial prefrontal cortex will be assessed in healthy participants after a favorite or familiar sound (music, language, environmental noise) and / or a positive emotional connotation, compared to a control condition (unfamiliar sound and / or neutral emotional connotation).
P300 response in healthy volunteers	24 hours after inclusion	Improvement of the P300 response (increase in amplitude and / or a decrease in latency) to a self-referential stimulation (eg first name pronunciation) compared to a non-self-referential stimulation (eg other name) will be assessed in healthy participants when it is preceded by a favorite or familiar sound (music, language, environmental noise) and / or a positive emotional connotation, compared to a control condition (sound unfamiliar and / or neutral emotional connotation)

Locations (1): Hospices Civils de Lyon - Hôpital Neurologique Pierre Wertheimer - Service de Médecine Physique et Réadaptation
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Lyon, France