Is the "Minimally Conscious State" Patient Minimally Self-Aware?
Frontiers in psychology January 1, 2020 Constantinos Picolas 5 citations
Patients in a Minimally Conscious State (MCS) show minimal signs of awareness, unlike those in a Vegetative State who show none. Existing research on self-awareness in MCS patients has focused only on higher-order, reflective self-awareness. This paper argues that a more basic, pre-reflective (or minimal) self-awareness—the implicit awareness of our embodied subjectivity that permeates all experiences—has been neglected. The author suggests that neuroimaging studies using First-Person Perspective-taking paradigms could assess minimal self-awareness in MCS patients, even when they lack self-reflective abilities. Such evidence would have theoretical implications for the concept of self-awareness and practical medical, social, and legal implications for managing awareness-impaired patients.