phenomenon · claim-type · cross-domain-transfer · mechanism · claim-relation · replication-status · limitation — grounded in the full text| phenomenon | disorders of consciousness after severe brain injury— “In this cross-sectional study, we recruited a consecutive sample of 143 patients who survived severe brain injury and developed a disorder of consciousness.” | |
| claim-type | mechanism— “At a circuit level, the implication of our findings is that, at least in the context of DOC, different aspects of consciousness, including willful behavior and arousal, might be mediated by thalamic and extrathalamic mechanisms, respectively.” | |
| method — evidence | — “Structural T1-weighted magnetic resonance images were collected, in a continuous sample of 143 severely brain-injured patients with DOC (and 96 volunteers), across 2 tertiary expert centers.” | |
| mechanism | Willful behaviour and arousal are supported by separate circuits, so thalamic damage removes organised willful behaviour while extrathalamic (basal ganglia) damage removes behavioural and electrocortical arousal— “At a circuit level, the implication of our findings is that, at least in the context of DOC, different aspects of consciousness, including willful behavior and arousal, might be mediated by thalamic and extrathalamic mechanisms, respectively.” | mechanisms[0] |
| mechanism | Loss of corticopetal thalamo-prefrontal projections (the mesocircuit) removes the drive that sustains organised behaviour and integrates information across cortex— “On the one hand, the negative association between motor/communication scores and atrophy along the anterior and dorsomedial regions of thalamus is consistent with the mesocircuit theory according to which corticopetal projections from thalamus to prefrontal cortex are crucial for sustaining organized behavior26 and integrating information… | mechanisms[1] |
| mechanism | Partial basal forebrain atrophy spares the coma-inducing threshold but impairs the fast cortical disinhibition that transiently amplifies sensory processing— “comalike state seen in animal models upon complete lesion of this region,18 but might nonetheless have been sufficient to affect the mechanisms of fast cortical disinhibition.” | mechanisms[2] |
| builds-on | the mesocircuit theory of disorders of consciousness— “On the one hand, the negative association between motor/communication scores and atrophy along the anterior and dorsomedial regions of thalamus is consistent with the mesocircuit theory according to which corticopetal projections from thalamus to prefrontal cortex are crucial for sustaining organized behavior26 and integrating information… | claim_relations[0] |
| replicates | postmortem examinations of thalamic damage after nontraumatic brain injury— “Third, paralleling postmortem examinations,50 we have also shown in vivo that patients suffering from nontraumatic brain injury exhibit a more widespread and left-lateralized degree of thalamic atrophy, consistent with the well-known poorer prognosis associated with nontraumatic etiology.1” | claim_relations[1] |
| sense | the region set - BOUNDED BY THE INSTRUMENT, NOT BY THE BIOLOGY: one structure previously shown to be crucial for the process under study could not be assessed with the technique used, so the map of which regions matter is drawn from the regions the method can see— “parabrachial/precoeruleus complex, which has been previously shown to be crucial for this process (but could not be assessed with the present technique)” | senses[0] |
| sense | the clinical outcome - COMPONENTS, NOT SUBSCALES: the six CRS-R subscales are correlated, so a principal component analysis with varimax rotation was performed and the regression is run on the components; every later claim linking a region to a function is a claim about a component— “However, because of the correlations between CRS-R subscales, and the negative effects of excessive multicollinearity on regression analysis,20 we performed a data reduction (principal component analysis [PCA], with varimax rotation of the loading matrix21)” | senses[1] |
| sense | the basal forebrain's role - ESTABLISHED ELSEWHERE, MEASURED HERE: the paper reports its own negative association with sensory responsiveness and, in the next clause, that the region is well known to play a causal role in arousal and to induce a comalike state when extensively lesioned - the causal claim is inherited, the association is measured— “In addition, we also found that the basal forebrain was (negatively) associated with the degree of sensory responsiveness of patients. This region is well known to play a causal role in the maintenance of behavioral and electrocortical arousal, and to induce a comalike state when extensively lesioned” | senses[2] |
| control | a multiple-regression approach across a deliberately HETEROGENEOUS patient sample, controlling the factors known to drive variability in disorders of consciousness — partial— “there are a number of additional factors that might well play an important role in determining the specific pattern of atrophy observed in a given patient that we could not address” — rules out aetiology, time since injury and the other known sources of between-patient variance, so that what remains is the 'minimum common denominator' the paper is after rather than a property of whichever patients were available— “employing a multiple regression approach to control for a number of factors that are known to be important sources of variability in DOC” | controls[0] |
| audit | basal forebrain —causes→ arousal — Audit 2026-09-28: DOUBTFUL - read against its span and kept, but the span says the basal forebrain is associated with responsiveness and known for arousal; causes is loose. | concept_edges[0] |
| weight | basal forebrain —causes→ arousal — 0.7 Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | concept_edges[0] |
| outcome | control — partial Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | controls[0] |
| for which use | limitation — any causal reading of the neuroanatomical findings: THE USE OF STRUCTURAL NEUROIMAGING, A DESCRIPTIVE METHODOLOGY ... DOES NOT ALLOW A CAUSAL INTERPRETATION OF OUR FINDINGS Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | limitations[0] |
| for which use | limitation — every segmentation and volume in patients: THE ATLAS-BASED COMPONENT ... IS BOTH AN ASSET ... AND A LIABILITY, GIVEN ITS RELIANCE ON PRIORS ESTIMATED MOSTLY FROM HEALTHY VOLUNTEERS Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | limitations[1] |
| for which use | limitation — the mechanistic model offered: OUR PROPOSAL, AS WELL AS THE MESOCIRCUIT MODEL OF DOC, ARE TO BE UNDERSTOOD AS APPROXIMATIONS THAT DO NOT TAKE INTO FULL ACCOUNT THE EXTENT OF CORTICOSUBCORTICAL CONNECTIVITY, TEMPORAL DYNAMICS Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | limitations[2] |
| for which use | limitation — any individual patient's atrophy pattern: THERE ARE A NUMBER OF ADDITIONAL FACTORS THAT MIGHT WELL PLAY AN IMPORTANT ROLE ... THAT WE COULD NOT ADDRESS Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | limitations[3] |
| for which use | limitation — any map of which structures support this process drawn from this study: the parabrachial/precoeruleus complex has previously been shown to be crucial for it and could not be assessed with the present technique Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | limitations[4] |
| for which use | limitation — any statement here relating a brain region to a clinical function: because of correlations between the CRS-R subscales and the effects of multicollinearity on regression, the authors performed a data reduction by principal component analysis with varimax rotation Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | limitations[5] |
| for which use | limitation — the set of subcortical regions examined here: this region was added to the analysis because of its causal role in the maintenance of cortical and behavioral arousal in animal models Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | limitations[6] |
| replication | untested | |
| limitation | Structural neuroimaging is descriptive, so the findings cannot be given a causal interpretation Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | limitations[0] |
| limitation | The atlas-based segmentation relies on priors estimated mostly from healthy volunteers Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | limitations[1] |
| limitation | The proposed model is an approximation that omits corticosubcortical connectivity, temporal dynamics, neurotransmitter action and further arousal-related regions Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | limitations[2] |
| limitation | Additional clinical factors that shape a given patient's atrophy pattern could not be addressed and would need larger samples Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | limitations[3] |
| limitation | A structure the literature calls crucial could not be assessed by the technique used. Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | limitations[4] |
| limitation | The outcome analysed is a set of rotated components, not the clinical subscales themselves. Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | limitations[5] |
| limitation | One region entered the analysis on the strength of evidence from animal models. Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | limitations[6] |
finding · quantity · variable · definition · key-term — grounded in the full text| finding | Compared with healthy volunteers, patients with disorders of consciousness showed significant atrophy in every subcortical structure examined. Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | content_tags.findings[0] |
| finding | The behaviourally defined diagnostic categories were not distinguishable by subcortical pathology: vegetative-state, MCS-minus and MCS-plus patients did not differ from one another in any region. Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | content_tags.findings[1] |
| finding | Total CRS-R score varied inversely with atrophy in the left globus pallidus, left putamen and small ventromedial parts of the basal forebrain. Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | content_tags.findings[2] |
| finding | Motor and communication ability tracked thalamic pathology: the Motor-Communication component correlated negatively with atrophy in bilateral anterior and dorsomedial thalamus, left putamen and right hippocampus. Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | content_tags.findings[3] |
| finding | Arousal tracked basal ganglia rather than thalamic pathology: the Arousal component correlated negatively with atrophy in bilateral putamen and globus pallidus. Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | content_tags.findings[4] |
| finding | Patients' level of arousal showed no association with thalamic atrophy. Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | content_tags.findings[5] |
| finding | Sensory (audiovisual) responsiveness was associated specifically with atrophy of small ventromedial segments of the basal forebrain. Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | content_tags.findings[6] |
| finding | Patients with nontraumatic injury had more widespread and left-lateralised thalamic atrophy than patients with traumatic injury, mirroring the worse prognosis of nontraumatic aetiology. Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | content_tags.findings[7] |
| finding | Vegetative-state patients showed more atrophy than eMCS patients in left putamen, globus pallidus and a small part of right hippocampus. Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | content_tags.findings[8] |
| quantity | 143 — consecutive patients with disorders of consciousness recruited Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | content_tags.quantities[0] |
| quantity | 96 — healthy volunteers providing control images Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | content_tags.quantities[1] |
| quantity | 28 — patient datasets discarded for low image quality before any analysis Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | content_tags.quantities[2] |
| quantity | 115 / 38 / 63 / 14 — patients analysed, split into vegetative state, minimally conscious state and emerging-from-MCS Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | content_tags.quantities[3] |
| quantity | 90% — total variance in the CRS-R subscales explained by the four retained PCA components Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | content_tags.quantities[4] |
| quantity | 100% and 99% — proportion of right and left globus pallidus vertices showing significant atrophy in patients versus volunteers Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | content_tags.quantities[5] |
| quantity | 47% — share of patients whose injury was nontraumatic Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | content_tags.quantities[6] |
| quantity | 56% of vertices — extent of left thalamus showing extra atrophy in nontraumatic relative to traumatic injury Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | content_tags.quantities[7] |
| quantity | 84% vs 9.6% and 6% — proportions of bilateral, left- and right-lateralised injuries in the sample, used to rule out a trivial explanation of the left-lateralised thalamic finding Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | content_tags.quantities[8] |
| variable | total CRS-R score (independent) Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | content_tags.variables[0] |
| variable | injury etiology (independent) Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | content_tags.variables[1] |
| variable | local brain atrophy (dependent) Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | content_tags.variables[2] |
| variable | total normalized brain volume (covariate) Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | content_tags.variables[3] |
| variable | age (covariate) Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | content_tags.variables[6] |
| variable | gender (covariate) Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | content_tags.variables[7] |
| definition | shape (or vertex) analysis Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | content_tags.definitions[0] |
| definition | minimum common denominator Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | content_tags.definitions[1] |
| concept | parabrachial/precoeruleus complex Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | concepts[0] |
| concept | CRS-R subscales Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | concepts[1] |
| concept | multicollinearity Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | concepts[2] |
| concept | basal forebrain Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | concepts[3] |
| concept | arousal Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | concepts[4] |
| principal component analysis PCA | as written: principal component analysis [PCA], with varimax rotation of the loading matrix Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | content_tags.statistics[0] |
| permutation test | as written: nonparametric permutation testing Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | content_tags.statistics[1] |
| multiple regression | as written: a multiple regression approach Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | content_tags.statistics[2] |
| t-statistic t | Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | content_tags.statistics[3] |
| p-value p | as written: p < 0.05, corrected Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | content_tags.statistics[4] |
| correlation | as written: correlated inversely Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | content_tags.statistics[5] |
| Bayesian estimation | as written: in a Bayesian framework Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | content_tags.statistics[6] |
| standard deviation SD | as written: standard deviation 5 18 years Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | content_tags.statistics[7] |
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