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Sleep spindles as indicator of preserved consciousness in Disorders of Consciousness patients

Poster Session F - Tuesday, March 10, 2026, 8:00 – 10:00 am PDT, Fairview/Kitsilano Ballroom

Anna Duszyk-Bogorodzka¹, Piotr Biegański²; ¹Behavioural Neuroscience Lab, Institute of Psychology, SWPS University,Warsaw, Poland, ²Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland

Disorders of consciousness (DoC) is a broad term that encompasses various clinical conditions, including coma, unresponsive wakefulness syndrome (UWS) and the minimally conscious state (MCS). As diagnosis currently relies on clinical scales, the identification of additional biomarkers of preserved consciousness is still needed. One of the crucial aspects of consciousness is the integrity of the thalamo-cortical connections. It can be reflected in the occurrence of sleep spindles during sleep. This study aims to explore which spindle parameters could serve as reliable diagnostic markers in patients with DoC. We analysed 72 overnight polysomnographic recordings from 22 patients. The Multivariate Matching Pursuit algorithm, a technique that enables multivariate time-frequency parameterisation, was applied to detect and parametrise sleep spindles. The findings revealed that several spindle parameters were correlated with patients’ clinical assessments (CRS-R), specifically spindle density (R(71) = .32, p = .012) and duration (R(71) = .42, p < .001), consistent with previous research. In contrast, spindle amplitude and energy showed no significant correlation with diagnosis. Moreover, the spatial distribution of sleep spindles appeared to be associated with the level of preserved consciousness (R(71) = .38, p = .005). These results suggest that the re-emergence of typical spindle activity patterns may indicate the restoration of thalamo-cortical connectivity and reflect a more favourable clinical condition.

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