, Junkyard – Can we use non-invasive techniques to detect conscious
awareness?
This is a basic template for a Junkyard Document. If you need your mind refreshing on what a Junkyard
Document is and how to use/create one, check out my Instagram posts here and here and my Tik Tok posts
here, here, here and here.
I usually begin my Junkyard by listing out aims and goals in bullet points like this. I take these from the
module outline, learning objectives and general ideas based on lecture and seminar work. Below are some
examples:
E.g. Explain the law on priority need in homelessness housing allocation.
E.g. Explore the history of homelessness law and the notion of the undeserving poor.
E.g. Analyse and evaluate contemporary conceptions of the undeserving poor.
E.g. Evaluate two cases where the law has either failed homeless people or not failed homeless
people.
Structures:
- Perhaps 1st paragraph about studies that have shown to some degree that there is possibility, but without the
correct controls and analysis techniques
- Then do a paragraph of studies showing the importance of using reverse inference correctly and applying
Bayesian stats to it to help it be valid
- Then do a paragraph of studies showing the importance of control and analysis, and use studies that show
this control and analysis
, - Conclude with the most recent findings, and a note on the importance of the stats involved etc
Author Quote/argument [pp. x] + Significance
Classen et al. (2019) – Detection of Brain Methods: acute brain injury patients who couldn’t respond to spoken commands
Activation in Unresponsive Patients with physically. They instructed the patients to move their hands, and machine learning
Acute Brain Injury was applied to EEG recordings taken when they were told to do this.
Result: 15% of patients showed brain activation 4 days after injury. Dissociation
EEG study between behaviour and EEG response to spoken motor commands is coined as
‘cognitive-motor dissociation’. (another study).
- Patints who show EEG response recovered more often than those who didn’t
show this.
Point: They found, using EEG, that there was some support for the idea that non-
invasive techniques can be used to detect conscious awareness – once again it is
reliant on the recognition of spoken words, but they backed it up by pointing out that
those showing activation recovered at a higher rate than those without. (PARA 1)
Engemann et al. (2018) – Robust EEG- Sample: total of 327 EEG recordings from DOC patients (148 unresponsive
based cross-site and cross-protocol wakefulness syndrome and 179 minimally conscious state) and 66 healthy controls.
classification of states of consciousness.
Current procedures for diagnosing DOC are based on human interaction and
EEG study therefore are susceptible to error (Rohaut and Claasen 2018)
Patients that show wilful modulations of brain activity (such as is suggested in Owen
et al. 2006, are coined as having cognitive motor dissociation (Curley et al. 2018)
Awareness can change and fluctuate over time, and some patients can even recover
(as found in Classen et al), which demonstrates the importance of doing work in this
field. (CONCLUSION)
PET has revealed a decrease in uptake of glucose in patients with DOC (Stender et
al. 2014)
awareness?
This is a basic template for a Junkyard Document. If you need your mind refreshing on what a Junkyard
Document is and how to use/create one, check out my Instagram posts here and here and my Tik Tok posts
here, here, here and here.
I usually begin my Junkyard by listing out aims and goals in bullet points like this. I take these from the
module outline, learning objectives and general ideas based on lecture and seminar work. Below are some
examples:
E.g. Explain the law on priority need in homelessness housing allocation.
E.g. Explore the history of homelessness law and the notion of the undeserving poor.
E.g. Analyse and evaluate contemporary conceptions of the undeserving poor.
E.g. Evaluate two cases where the law has either failed homeless people or not failed homeless
people.
Structures:
- Perhaps 1st paragraph about studies that have shown to some degree that there is possibility, but without the
correct controls and analysis techniques
- Then do a paragraph of studies showing the importance of using reverse inference correctly and applying
Bayesian stats to it to help it be valid
- Then do a paragraph of studies showing the importance of control and analysis, and use studies that show
this control and analysis
, - Conclude with the most recent findings, and a note on the importance of the stats involved etc
Author Quote/argument [pp. x] + Significance
Classen et al. (2019) – Detection of Brain Methods: acute brain injury patients who couldn’t respond to spoken commands
Activation in Unresponsive Patients with physically. They instructed the patients to move their hands, and machine learning
Acute Brain Injury was applied to EEG recordings taken when they were told to do this.
Result: 15% of patients showed brain activation 4 days after injury. Dissociation
EEG study between behaviour and EEG response to spoken motor commands is coined as
‘cognitive-motor dissociation’. (another study).
- Patints who show EEG response recovered more often than those who didn’t
show this.
Point: They found, using EEG, that there was some support for the idea that non-
invasive techniques can be used to detect conscious awareness – once again it is
reliant on the recognition of spoken words, but they backed it up by pointing out that
those showing activation recovered at a higher rate than those without. (PARA 1)
Engemann et al. (2018) – Robust EEG- Sample: total of 327 EEG recordings from DOC patients (148 unresponsive
based cross-site and cross-protocol wakefulness syndrome and 179 minimally conscious state) and 66 healthy controls.
classification of states of consciousness.
Current procedures for diagnosing DOC are based on human interaction and
EEG study therefore are susceptible to error (Rohaut and Claasen 2018)
Patients that show wilful modulations of brain activity (such as is suggested in Owen
et al. 2006, are coined as having cognitive motor dissociation (Curley et al. 2018)
Awareness can change and fluctuate over time, and some patients can even recover
(as found in Classen et al), which demonstrates the importance of doing work in this
field. (CONCLUSION)
PET has revealed a decrease in uptake of glucose in patients with DOC (Stender et
al. 2014)
