Motor-imagery brain-computer interface electroencephalography and behavioural assessment datasets in prolonged disorders of consciousness

Data were collected as part of the registered ClinicalTrials.gov study “Awareness Detection and Communication in Disorders of Consciousness” (NCT03827187; registered 30 January 2019).

Datasets comprise electroencephalography (EEG) recordings collected during structured motor imagery brain–computer interface (MI-BCI) sessions, together with concurrent behavioural assessment scores, from individuals diagnosed with a prolonged disorder of consciousness (PDoC) or locked-in syndrome (LIS). The cohort (N = 42) includes individuals with unresponsive wakefulness syndrome (UWS, n = 14), minimally conscious state (MCS, n = 17), and locked-in syndrome (LIS, n = 11). EEG recordings from two able-bodied participants (n = 2) are also included as benchmark data collected using the same MI-BCI protocol.

During MI-BCI sessions, participants were instructed to perform motor imagery tasks in response to auditory cues. Multiple recording sessions were obtained per participant. The dataset contains continuous EEG recordings with event triggers marking the onset and offset of task periods, and a baseline interval defined as −1000 to 0 ms relative to task-cue onset. Session-level Coma Recovery Scale–Revised (CRS-R) and Wessex Head Injury Matrix (WHIM) behavioural assessments are provided and linked to the corresponding EEG recording sessions.