Award

Charlotte Martial receives the Young Investigator Award from IBIA, Charlène Aubinet an honorable mention

3 April 2023

Researcher in the Coma Science Group - GIGA Consciousness of the University of Liege, Charlotte Martial received the Young Investigator Award from the International Brain Injury Association for her research in the field of disconnected consciousness. Congratulations!

IBIA Young Investigator Award

The biennial Young Investigator Award recognizes excellence in brain injury research by an individual in training (graduate or medical school, residency, fellowship, or post-doc).

For the first time ever, the review committee recognized Honorable Mentions for this award and Charlène Aubinet (Coma Science Group too) received one of the two recognitions for her work.

Research topic

Charlotte Martial is working on memory after critical unresponsive conditions, like being in a coma, trauma and cardiac arrest. More specifically, she is investigating what we call 'disconnected consciousness', which is being conscious while completely unresponsive to the external environment and subsequently reporting rich mental experiences, such as near-death experiences.

In parallel, her research also focuses on the investigation of potential treatments, such as ketamine and psilocybin, for severely brain-injured patients suffering from a disorder of consciousness. With her colleagues from the Coma Science Group, they are currently conducting randomized controlled trials studying these two substances as clinical interventions to investigate mechanisms of consciousness recovery via an increase of neural complexity.

Charlène Aubinet studies the links between consciousness and language in patients with extensive brain damage. Wishing to improve their care, she uses neuroimaging and develops new tools for language evaluation and rehabilitation. Her research allows to better detect the residual abilities of these patients in coma awakening, and thus to avoid a serious underestimation of their level of consciousness.

The International Brain Injury Association

The IBIA is dedicated to the development and support of multidisciplinary medical and clinical professionals, advocates, decision-makers, consumers and others who work to improve outcomes and opportunities for people with brain injuries.