Researchers were puzzled when three minimally conscious, brain-injured patients responded to the sleep aid, Ambien, and regained awareness. Now, a team of scientists, led by Weill Cornell Medical College, has discovered a signature of brain activity in these similarly “awakened” patients, identified by analyzing electroencephalography (EEG) tests. The resting EEG pattern the researchers saw in the patients indicates that they have a “recruitable reserve” of function in these critical brain areas that Ambien can harness to turn the brain on, even if only temporarily. “Now that we have uncovered important insight into fundamental mechanisms underlying the dramatic and rare response of some severely brain-injured patients to Ambien, we hope to systematically explore ways to achieve such kick-starts in other patients — that is our goal,”  says the study’s senior investigator, Dr. Nicholas Schiff. Click here to read the full article.