Coma and Disorders of Consciousness

Dr Schnakers has been working as a clinical scientist in the neurorehabilitation field for the past 15 years. She focuses her research on brain-injured patients with Disorders of Consciousness (DOC) and, more particularly, on the assessment of their brain activity and cognitive functions using behavioral, electrophysiological and neuroimaging techniques. She has published more than 100 articles (H-index: 52) in international peer reviewed journals such as Neurology, Annals of Neurology, Nature Reviews Neurology and Lancet. She serves as the chair of the Special Interest Group on DOC for the International Brain Injury Association and she is actively involved in the Curing Coma Campaign. She currently works as assistant director at the Research Institute of Casa Colina Hospital and Centers for Healthcare (Pomona, CA). 

Neurologist and Clinical Professor at the Brain Center of the University Hospital of Liège, Research Director at the FNRS, Steven Laureys directed, until thebeginning of 2020, the Coma Science Group which he created in 2014 within the GIGA Consciousness center of the University of Liege. Most of his research work is devoted to the study of altered consciousness in severely brain-damaged patients (coma, unresponsive vegetative/awake state, minimally conscious state, locked-in syndrome), as well as during anesthesia, sleep, meditation and in the hypnotic state. 

Steven Laureys  MD PhD FEAN is a neurologist, neuroscientist, author and keynote speaker, recognised for his research on human consciousness. He is Research Director at the Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research, founder and head of the Centre Cerveau at the Liège University Hospital in Belgium, founder of the ‘Coma Science Group’, director of the GIGA Consciousness Research Unit at Liège University & Invited Professor at CERVO Brain Centre, Laval University, Canada, and Harvard Medical School, Boston. He also serves as Founding Co-Director of the Hangzhou International Consciousness Institute, China and is Chief Neurologist at TRAINM / Brain-NM Clinics, Antwerp and Amsterdam. With his team and collaborators, he uses neuroimaging to study concussion, coma, locked-in syndrome , vegetative state/unresponsive wakefulness and minimally conscious states but also brain death and near death experiences. Laureys interests include the study of neuroplasticity and brain function in severe brain damage but also in sleep, anesthesia, hypnosis and meditation. He is the founder & past-chair of the World Federation of Neurology Applied Research Group on Coma, past president of the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness and fellow of the Belgian Royal Academy of Medicine and the European Academy of Neurology. He has published over 560 scientific articles (H-index 141) and is the author of 6popular books.