Adrian M. Owen

DoC Keynote Lecture: Functional Neuroimaging in the Acute Brain Injured State; Diagnosis and Prognosis

In recent years, rapid technological developments in the field of neuroimaging have provided a number of new methods for revealing thoughts, actions and intentions based solely on the pattern of activity that is observed in the human brain. These techniques, including functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), electroencephalography (EEG) and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), have been used to detect covert conscious awareness in some chronic patients who are behaviourally entirely non-responsive (e.g. vegetative state, coma) and even to allow some of these individuals to communicate their wishes and thoughts to the outside world. In this lecture I will explore the extent to which such methods may also be useful for improving diagnosis and prognosis in the acute phase of brain injury; that is, in the first few days after a serious injury when patients are at their most vulnerable and prognosis is most uncertain. I will present data showing that techniques like fMRI can be used safely and successfully in the intensive care setting, both to detect preserved cognitive capabilities that evade detection using standard clinical approaches, and to predict and measure outcomes in unresponsive, acutely brain-injured patients. These findings have significant implications for the assessment and clinical care of patients in the intensive care setting, will inform medical ethics and legal discussions (in terms of withdrawal of life-sustaining therapies), and will drive efforts to develop interventions to facilitate recovery and quality of life after serious brain injury.

Bio:

Adrian M. Owen, OBE, PhD is currently a Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience and Imaging in the Departments of Physiology & Pharmacology and Psychology at the University of Western Ontario, Canada. He also directs the Azrieli program in Brain, Mind, and Consciousness funded by the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) and is on the Executive Committee of the CFREF funded initiative BrainsCAN at the University of Western Ontario, Canada.

Dr. Owen was previously the Assistant Director of the Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit at Cambridge University and the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience and Imaging at Western University. His research combines structural and functional neuroimaging with neuropsychological studies of brain-injured patients and has been published in many of the world’s leading scientific journals, including Science, Nature, The New England Journal of Medicine and Lancet. Adrian Owen is best known for showing that functional neuroimaging can reveal conscious awareness in some patients who appear to be entirely vegetative and can even allow some of these individuals to communicate their thoughts and wishes to the outside world. These findings have attracted widespread media attention on TV, radio, in print and online and have been the subject of many TV and radio documentaries.

Dr. Owen has played multiple editorial roles, including 8 years as Deputy Editor of The European Journal of Neuroscience. He has published over 300 peer-reviewed articles and chapters and a best-selling popular science book ‘Into the Gray Zone: A Neuroscientist Explores the Border Between Life and Death. Dr. Owen was recently awarded Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the Queen’s Honors List, 2019, for services to scientific research.