"A" was a 35-year-old female, admitted to the unit with severe TBI following a road traffic accident 10 months previously, who had undergone bi-lateral frontal craniotomies to reduce cranial swelling. Both her SMART and MATADOC assessments gave a diagnosis of VS. Medication adjustments, spiking temperatures, and general poor arousal levels were thought to be impacting on her response levels. The experimental session took place during this assessment period, i.e., when arousal was reduced.
"A" displayed a range of behaviors suggestive of discriminatory responses in relation to LM, EI, and WN. In relation to EEG, significant post hoc peaks for LM and EI were observed for temporal, frontal, central, parietal, and occipital regions across bandwidths. Figure 6 illustrates the theta and alpha EEG responses for each stimuli in the R temporal region, highlighting the dominance of EI in theta, and LM in alpha. Furthermore Figure 7 highlights the marked significant increase in frontal beta for LM, which contributed to a significant theta:beta ratio [F(4, 356) = 47.0, p < 0.001] with a marked decrease for LM [F(1, 89) = 133.8, p < 0.001].
"A" had her eyes open with no body movement throughout the session. Interestingly, she displayed eye movement only for LM and WN with significantly more counts for LM (48 compared to 38, t-test p = 0.001). Her HR ANOVA showed marked significant change [F(4, 36) = 1373, p < 0.001] due to the striking increases for mean HR for LM (91 BPM, SD: 2) and WN (86 BPM, SD: 1.2) compared to BLS (68 BMP, SD: 0.69), DM (67 BPM, SD: 1), and EI (65 BPM, SD: 0.9). HRV (RMSSD) also showed significant change [F(4, 36) = 101.2, p < 0.001] due to decreases for LM [F(1, 9) = 141.2, p < 0.001] and WN [F(1, 9) = 154.4, p < 0.001]. LF and HF change was also significant [LF: F(4, 36) = 11, p = 0.012, HF: F(4, 36) = 11.8, p < 0.001] accounted for by increases in LF for LM [F(1, 9) = 9.8, p = 0.012] and WN [F(1, 9) = 23.8, p = 0.001] and decreases in HF for all stimuli compared to BLS. In summary, "A" displayed significant behavioral responses LM, autonomic responses for LM and WN, and EEG amplitude increases in the R temporal and frontal regions across bandwidths for both music therapy stimuli.