Steven Laureys (born 24 December 1968 in

Leuven Leuven (, ) or Louvain (, , ; german: link=no, Löwen ) is the capital and largest city of the province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about east of Brussels. The municipality itself comprises the historic ...

) is a Belgian

neurologist Neurology (from el, νεῦρον (neûron), "string, nerve" and the suffix -logia, "study of") is the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the brain, the spinal c ...

. He is principally known as a clinician and researcher in the field of neurology of consciousness.

Career

Prof. Laureys graduated as a

Medical Doctor A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

from the

Vrije Universiteit Brussel The Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) () is a Dutch and English-speaking research university located in Brussels, Belgium.The Vrije Universiteit Brussel is one of the five universities officially recognised by the Flemish Community, Flemish gov ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

, in 1993. While specializing in neurology he entered a research career and obtained his MSc in

Pharmaceutical A medication (also called medicament, medicine, pharmaceutical drug, medicinal drug or simply drug) is a drug used to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent disease. Drug therapy (pharmacotherapy) is an important part of the medical field and re ...

Medicine working on

pain Pain is a distressing feeling often caused by intense or damaging stimuli. The International Association for the Study of Pain defines pain as "an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with, or resembling that associated with, ...

and

stroke A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop functionin ...

using in vivo

microdialysis Microdialysis is a minimally-invasive sampling technique that is used for continuous measurement of free, unbound analyte concentrations in the extracellular fluid of virtually any tissue. Analytes may include endogenous molecules (e.g. neurotra ...

and

diffusion MRI Diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DWI or DW-MRI) is the use of specific MRI sequences as well as software that generates images from the resulting data that uses the diffusion of water molecules to generate contrast in MR images. It ...

in the rat (1997). Drawn by

functional neuroimaging Functional neuroimaging is the use of neuroimaging technology to measure an aspect of brain function, often with a view to understanding the relationship between activity in certain brain areas and specific mental functions. It is primarily used a ...

, he moved to th
Cyclotron Research Center
at the

University of Liège The University of Liège (french: Université de Liège), or ULiège, is a major public university of the French Community of Belgium based in Liège, Wallonia, Belgium. Its official language is French. As of 2020, ULiège is ranked in the 301 ...

, Belgium, where he obtained his PhD studying residual brain function in the

vegetative state A persistent vegetative state (PVS) or post-coma unresponsiveness (PCU) is a disorder of consciousness in which patients with severe brain damage are in a state of partial arousal rather than true awareness. After four weeks in a vegetative stat ...

in 2000. He is board-certified in neurology (1998) and in end-of-life and

palliative medicine In 2006, ''hospice and palliative medicine'' was officially recognized by the American Board of Medical Specialties, and is ''co-sponsored'' by the American Boards of * Internal Medicine * Anesthesiology * Family Medicine * Physical Medicine ...

(2004). He currently leads th
Coma Science Group
at th

of the

. He is clinical professor of

neurology Neurology (from el, wikt:νεῦρον, νεῦρον (neûron), "string, nerve" and the suffix wikt:-logia, -logia, "study of") is the branch of specialty (medicine), medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of co ...

, at th
Liège University Hospital
and Research Director at the

National Fund for Scientific Research The National Fund for Scientific Research (NFSR) (Dutch: ''Nationaal Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek'' (NFWO), French: ''Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique'' (FNRS)) was once a government institution in Belgium for supporting scient ...

. Laureys is chair of the World Federation of Neurology's Coma and Disorders of Consciousness Research Group and of th
European Neurological Society
s Subcommittee on Coma and Disorders of Consciousness. Since 2009, he is invited professor at

the Royal Academy of Belgium The Royal Academies for Science and the Arts of Belgium (RASAB) is a non-governmental association which promotes and organises science and the arts in Belgium by coordinating the national and international activities of its constituent academies su ...

. In 2010, he was invited to give a research lecture at Nobel Forum.

Research

His team assesses the recovery of neurological

disability Disability is the experience of any condition that makes it more difficult for a person to do certain activities or have equitable access within a given society. Disabilities may be Cognitive disability, cognitive, Developmental disability, dev ...

and of

neuronal plasticity Neuroplasticity, also known as neural plasticity, or brain plasticity, is the ability of neural networks in the brain to change through growth and reorganization. It is when the brain is rewired to function in some way that differs from how it p ...

in severely

brain damaged Neurotrauma, brain damage or brain injury (BI) is the destruction or degeneration of brain cells. Brain injuries occur due to a wide range of internal and external factors. In general, brain damage refers to significant, undiscriminating t ...

patients with

altered states of consciousness An altered state of consciousness (ASC), also called altered state of mind or mind alteration, is any condition which is significantly different from a normal waking state. By 1892, the expression was in use in relation to hypnosis, though there ...

by means of multimodal

. It aims at characterizing the brain structure and the residual cerebral function in patients who survive a severe

brain injury An injury is any physiological damage to living tissue caused by immediate physical stress. An injury can occur intentionally or unintentionally and may be caused by blunt trauma, penetrating trauma, burning, toxic exposure, asphyxiation, or o ...

: patients in

coma A coma is a deep state of prolonged unconsciousness in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light, or sound, lacks a normal wake-sleep cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. Coma patients exhi ...

minimally conscious state A minimally conscious state (MCS) is a disorder of consciousness distinct from persistent vegetative state and locked-in syndrome. Unlike persistent vegetative state, patients with MCS have partial preservation of conscious awareness. MCS is a rel ...

and

locked in syndrome Locked-in syndrome (LIS), also known as pseudocoma, is a condition in which a patient is aware but cannot move or communicate verbally due to complete paralysis of nearly all voluntary muscles in the body except for vertical eye movements and bli ...

. The importance of this project is twofold. First, these patients represent a problem in terms of

diagnosis Diagnosis is the identification of the nature and cause of a certain phenomenon. Diagnosis is used in many different disciplines, with variations in the use of logic, analytics, and experience, to determine " cause and effect". In systems engin ...

prognosis Prognosis (Greek: πρόγνωσις "fore-knowing, foreseeing") is a medical term for predicting the likely or expected development of a disease, including whether the signs and symptoms will improve or worsen (and how quickly) or remain stabl ...

, treatment and daily management. Second, these patients offer the opportunity to explore

human consciousness Consciousness, at its simplest, is sentience and awareness of internal and external existence. However, the lack of definitions has led to millennia of analyses, explanations and debates by philosophers, theologians, linguisticians, and scien ...

, which is presently one major conundrum

neurosciences Neuroscience is the science, scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions and disorders. It is a Multidisciplinary approach, multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, an ...

have to solve. Indeed, these patients present a complete, nearly graded, range of conscious states from

unconsciousness Unconsciousness is a state in which a living individual exhibits a complete, or near-complete, inability to maintain an consciousness, awareness of self and environment or to respond to any human or environmental Stimulus (physiology), stimulus. ...

(

) to full

awareness Awareness is the state of being conscious of something. More specifically, it is the ability to directly know and perceive, to feel, or to be cognizant of events. Another definition describes it as a state wherein a subject is aware of some inform ...

(

locked-in syndrome Locked-in syndrome (LIS), also known as pseudocoma, is a condition in which a patient is aware but cannot move or communicate verbally due to complete paralysis of nearly all voluntary muscles in the body except for vertical eye movements and bli ...

). This research confronts clinical expertise and bedside behavioral evaluation of

with state-of-the-art multimodal imaging combining the information from

positron emission tomography Positron emission tomography (PET) is a functional imaging technique that uses radioactive substances known as radiotracers to visualize and measure changes in Metabolism, metabolic processes, and in other physiological activities including bl ...

(PET),

functional magnetic resonance imaging Functional magnetic resonance imaging or functional MRI (fMRI) measures brain activity by detecting changes associated with blood flow. This technique relies on the fact that cerebral blood flow and neuronal activation are coupled. When an area o ...

(fMRI), structural

MRI Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a medical imaging technique used in radiology to form pictures of the anatomy and the physiological processes of the body. MRI scanners use strong magnetic fields, magnetic field gradients, and radio waves ...

electroencephalography Electroencephalography (EEG) is a method to record an electrogram of the spontaneous electrical activity of the brain. The biosignals detected by EEG have been shown to represent the postsynaptic potentials of pyramidal neurons in the neocortex ...

(EEG),

event related potential An event-related potential (ERP) is the measured brain response that is the direct result of a specific sensory, cognitive, or motor event. More formally, it is any stereotyped electrophysiological response to a stimulus. The study of the brai ...

(ERP) and

transcranial magnetic stimulation Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a noninvasive form of brain stimulation in which a changing magnetic field is used to induce an electric current at a specific area of the brain through electromagnetic induction. An electric pulse gener ...

(TMS) data.

Selected publications

* "A theoretically based index of consciousness independent of sensory processing and behavior", Casali AG, Gosseries O, Rosanova M, Boly M, Sarasso S, Casali KR, Casarotto S, Bruno MA, Laureys S, Tononi G, Massimini M. ''Science Translational Medicine'' 5 (2013) * "Pupil responses allow communication in locked-in syndrome patients", Stoll J, Chatelle C, Carter O, Koch C, Laureys S, Einhäuser W. ''Current Biology'' 23 (2013) R647–648 * "Disorders of consciousness: responding to requests for novel diagnostic and therapeutic interventions", Jox RJ, Bernat JL, Laureys S, Racine E. ''Lancet Neurology'' 11 (2012) 732–738 * "Bedside detection of awareness in the vegetative state: a cohort study", Cruse D, Chennu S, Chatelle C, Bekinschtein TA, Fernández-Espejo D, Pickard JD, Laureys S, Owen AM. ''Lancet'' 278 (2011) 2088–2094 * "Willful modulation of brain activity in disorders of consciousness", Monti MM, Vanhaudenhuyse A, Coleman MR, Boly M, Pickard JD, Tshibanda L, Owen AM, Laureys S. ''New England Journal of Medicine'' 362 (2010) 579–589 * "The changing spectrum of coma", Laureys S, Boly M, ''Nature Clinical Practice Neurology'' 4 (2008) 544–546 * "Perception of pain in the minimally conscious state with PET activation: an observational study", Boly M, Faymonville ME, Schnakers C, Peigneux P, Lambermont B, Phillips C, Lancellotti P, Luxen A, Lamy M, Moonen G, Maquet P, Laureys S, ''Lancet Neurology'', 7 (2008) 1013–1020 * "Baseline brain activity fluctuations predict somatosensory perception in humans", Boly M, Balteau E, Schnakers C, Degueldre C, Moonen G, Luxen A, Phillips C, Peigneux P, Maquet P, Laureys S ''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA)'', 104 (2007) 12187–12192 * "Detecting awareness in the vegetative state", Owen AM, Coleman MR, Boly M, Davis MH, Laureys S, Pickard J ''Science'' 313 (2006) 1402 * "Death, unconsciousness and the brain", Laureys S ''Nature Reviews Neuroscience'', 11 (2005) 899–909 * "Brain function in coma, vegetative state, and related disorders", Laureys S, Owen A, Schiff N, ''Lancet Neurology'' 3 (2004) 537–46 * "Restoration of thalamocortical connectivity after recovery from persistent vegetative state", Laureys S, Faymonville ME, Luxen A, Lamy M, Franck G, Maquet P, ''Lancet'' 355 (2000) 1790–1791 * ''The Neurology of Consciousness'', ed. Laureys S and Tononi G, Academic Press, New York, 2008 * ''The boundaries of consciousness'', ed. Laureys S, Elsevier, Amsterdam, 2006

References

External links

Coma Science Group
(with downloadable papers)
Steven Laureys' page at the University of Liège

Cyclotron Research Centre

Liège University Hospital
{{DEFAULTSORT:Laureys, Steven 1968 births Living people Belgian neuroscientists Belgian consciousness researchers and theorists Cognitive neuroscientists Materialists Belgian medical writers Belgian science writers Electroencephalographers

Career

Research

Selected publications

See also

References

External links