Browsing by Subject "Consciousness"

Now showing 1 - 7 of 7
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    Alzheimer's Disease Narratives and the Myth of Human Being
    (2012-12-11) Rieske, Tegan Echo; Schultz, Jane E.; Johnson, Karen Ramsay; Tilley, John J.
    The ‘loss of self’ trope is a pervasive shorthand for the prototypical process of Alzheimer's disease (AD) in the popular imagination. Turned into an effect of disease, the disappearance of the self accommodates a biomedical story of progressive deterioration and the further medicalization of AD, a process which has been storied as an organic pathology affecting the brain or, more recently, a matter of genetic calamity. This biomedical discourse of AD provides a generic framework for the disease and is reproduced in its illness narratives. The disappearance of self is a mythic element in AD narratives; it necessarily assumes the existence of a singular and coherent entity which, from the outside, can be counted as both belonging to and representing an individual person. The loss of self, as the rhetorical locus of AD narrative, limits the privatization of the experience and reinscribes cultural storylines---storylines about what it means to be a human person. The loss of self as it occurs in AD narratives functions most effectively in reasserting the presence of the human self, in contrast to an anonymous, inhuman nonself; as AD discourse details a loss of self, it necessarily follows that the thing which is lost (the self) always already existed. The private, narrative self of individual experience thus functions as proxy to a collective human identity predicated upon exceptionalism: an escape from nature and the conditions of the corporeal environment.
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    askew
    (2014-05) Wichmann, Stephanie; Jefferson, Corey
    Every moment is everywhere . Being human is a mass of feelings and the felt. One can never be certain who they are moment to moment for the body is always changing and adjusting, along side partners’, time and space. Nothing is constant.
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    Behavioral Recovery and Early Decision Making in Patients with Prolonged Disturbance in Consciousness after Traumatic Brain Injury
    (Mary Ann Liebert, 2020-01-15) Giacino, Joseph T.; Sherer, Mark; Christoforou, Andrea; Maurer-Karattup, Petra; Hammond, Flora M.; Long, David; Bagiella, Emilia; Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, School of Medicine
    The extent of behavioral recovery that occurs in patients with traumatic disorders of consciousness (DoC) following discharge from the acute care setting has been under-studied and increases the risk of overly pessimistic outcome prediction. The aim of this observational cohort study was to systematically track behavioral and functional recovery in patients with prolonged traumatic DoC following discharge from the acute care setting. Standardized behavioral data were acquired from 95 patients in a minimally conscious (MCS) or vegetative state (VS) recruited from 11 clinic sites and randomly assigned to the placebo arm of a previously completed prospective clinical trial. Patients were followed for 6 weeks by blinded observers to determine frequency of recovery of six target behaviors associated with functional status. The Coma Recovery Scale-Revised and Disability Rating Scale were used to track reemergence of target behaviors and assess degree of functional disability, respectively. Twenty percent (95% confidence interval [CI]: 13-30%) of participants (mean age 37.2; median 47 days post-injury; 69 men) recovered all six target behaviors within the 6 week observation period. The odds of recovering a specific target behavior were 3.2 (95% CI: 1.2-8.1) to 7.8 (95% CI: 2.7-23.0) times higher for patients in MCS than for those in VS. Patients with preserved language function ("MCS+") recovered the most behaviors (p ≤ 0.002) and had the least disability (p ≤ 0.002) at follow-up. These findings suggest that recovery of high-level behaviors underpinning functional independence is common in patients with prolonged traumatic DoC. Clinicians involved in early prognostic counseling should recognize that failure to emerge from traumatic DoC before 28 days does not necessarily portend unfavorable outcome.
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    Embryo Adoption: Implications of Personhood, Marriage, and Parenthood
    (2008-04-14T12:30:19Z) McMillen, Brooke Marie; Brand, Peggy Zeglin; Eberl, Jason T.; Burke, Michael B.
    One’s personal claims regarding personhood will influence his moral belief regarding embryo adoption. In Chapter One, I consider the personhood of the human embryo. If the human embryo is a person, we are morally obligated to permit the practice of embryo adoption as an ethical means to save human persons. However, for those who do not claim that an embryo is a person at conception, embryo adoption is not a necessary practice because we have no moral obligation to protect them. There are still others who claim that personhood is gained at some point during gestation when certain mental capacities develop. I offer my own claim that consciousness and sentience as well as the potential to be self-conscious mark the beginning of personhood. Embryo adoption raises several questions surrounding the institution of marriage. Due to its untraditional method of procreation, embryo adoption calls into question the role of procreation within marriage. In Chapter Two, I explore the nature of the marriage relationship by offering Lisa Cahill’s definition of marriage which involves both a spiritual and physical dimension, and then I describe the concept of marriage from different perspectives including a social, religious, and a personal perspective. From a personal perspective, I explore the relationship between marriage and friendship. Finally, I describe how the concept of marriage is understood today and explore the advantages to being married as opposed to the advantages of being single. Embryo adoption changes the way we customarily think about procreation within a family because in embryo adoption, couples are seeking an embryo from another union to be implanted into the woman. This prompts some philosophers to argue that embryo adoption violates the marriage relationship. In Chapter Three, I further consider the impact of embryo adoption on the family as an extension of the marital relationship as well as the impact of embryo adoption on the traditional roles of motherhood and fatherhood. I examine motherhood by looking at how some philosophers define motherhood and when these philosophers claim a woman becomes a mother. After considering these issues regarding motherhood, I examine the same issues surrounding fatherhood. Peg Brand, PhD., Chair
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    Incidence and prevalence of coma in the UK and the USA
    (Oxford University Press, 2022-09-01) Kondziella, Daniel; Amiri, Moshgan; Othman, Marwan H.; Beghi, Ettore; Bodien, Yelena G.; Citerio, Giuseppe; Giacino, Joseph T.; Mayer, Stephan A.; Lawson, Thomas N.; Menon, David K.; Rass, Verena; Sharshar, Tarek; Stevens, Robert D.; Tinti, Lorenzo; Vespa, Paul; McNett, Molly; Venkatasubba Rao, Chethan P.; Helbok, Raimund; Curing Coma Campaign Collaborators; Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, School of Medicine
    The epidemiology of coma is unknown because case ascertainment with traditional methods is difficult. Here, we used crowdsourcing methodology to estimate the incidence and prevalence of coma in the UK and the USA. We recruited UK and US laypeople (aged ≥18 years) who were nationally representative (i.e. matched for age, gender and ethnicity according to census data) of the UK and the USA, respectively, utilizing a crowdsourcing platform. We provided a description of coma and asked survey participants if they-'right now' or 'within the last year'-had a family member in coma. These participants (UK n = 994, USA n = 977) provided data on 30 387 family members (UK n = 14 124, USA n = 16 263). We found more coma cases in the USA (n = 47) than in the UK (n = 20; P = 0.009). We identified one coma case in the UK (0.007%, 95% confidence interval 0.00-0.04%) on the day of the survey and 19 new coma cases (0.13%, 95% confidence interval 0.08-0.21%) within the preceding year, resulting in an annual incidence of 135/100 000 (95% confidence interval 81-210) and a point prevalence of 7 cases per 100 000 population (95% confidence interval 0.18-39.44) in the UK. We identified five cases in the USA (0.031%, 95% confidence interval 0.01-0.07%) on the day of the survey and 42 new cases (0.26%, 95% confidence interval 0.19-0.35%) within the preceding year, resulting in an annual incidence of 258/100 000 (95% confidence interval 186-349) and a point prevalence of 31 cases per 100 000 population (95% confidence interval 9.98-71.73) in the USA. The five most common causes were stroke, medically induced coma, COVID-19, traumatic brain injury and cardiac arrest. To summarize, for the first time, we report incidence and prevalence estimates for coma across diagnosis types and settings in the UK and the USA using crowdsourcing methods. Coma may be more prevalent in the USA than in the UK, which requires further investigation. These data are urgently needed to expand the public health perspective on coma and disorders of consciousness.
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    (Selah)
    (2015) Beisel, Stephanie; Winship, Andrew
    Words cannot express things; Speech does not convey the spirit. Swayed by words, one is lost; Blocked by phrases one is bewildered. Mumon Rhythm is innate to every aspect of existence; it inhales and exhales; it causes civilizations to rise and fall; it beats the drum of war and plays the waltz of peace; it changes the seasons as the earth circles the sun; it is the cycle of birth and decay. Although flux and change appear to occur, they are mere players in this constant cosmic repetition. My process of drawing and cutting is a means of introspection. These repetitive, monastic actions occupy the physical body and allow the mind to wander free from the concerns of daily life. They parallel the inescapable rhythms that govern our lives: from the minute, such as blinking, to larger aspects, the ebb and flow of tides, for instance. Acts of artistic creation become ritualistic when viewed in comparison to the archetypal creation of the universe. Each piece is an artifact of a meditative experience and an ode to the mystery of the universe.
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    Understanding Disorders of Consciousness: Opportunities for Critical Care Nurses
    (American Association of Critical Care Nurses, 2021) Mulkey, Malissa A.; School of Nursing
    Background: Disorders of consciousness are powerful predictors of outcomes including mortality among critically ill patients. Encephalopathy, delirium, and coma are disorders of consciousness frequently encountered by critical care nurses but often classified incorrectly. Objective: To provide a greater understanding of disorders of consciousness and to provide standardized assessments and nursing interventions for these disorders. Methods: A literature search was conducted by using the terms consciousness, mental status, awareness, arousal, wakefulness, assessment, disorders of consciousness, delirium, encephalopathy, coma, vegetative state, and minimal consciousness. Articles were published in the past 10 years in CINAHL and PubMed. Articles were excluded if they were not in English or directly related to caring for patients with a disorder of consciousness. The remaining 142 articles were evaluated for inclusion; 81 articles received full review. Results: A disorder of consciousness signifies that the threshold for compensation has been surpassed with potentially irreversible damage. Altered thalamocortical interactions and reduced cortical activity impair communication networks across the various parts of the brain, causing a disturbance in consciousness. Discussion: The cue-response theory is a model that describes the process and impact of nursing care on recovery from acute brain injury. Appropriate standardized assessments and interventions must be used to manage altered levels of consciousness in critically ill patients. Conclusions: Paying close attention to neurological changes and monitoring them with standardized assessments are critical to implementing early measures to prevent complications.