The DOI matches its Crossref record; 73 of the 73 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Consciousness in congenitally decorticate children: developmental vegetative state as self-fulfilling prophecy
Abstract
According to traditional neurophysiological theory, consciousness requires neocortical functioning, and children born without cerebral hemispheres necessarily remain indefinitely in a developmental vegetative state. Four children between 5 and 17 years old are reported with congenital brain malformations involving total or near-total absence of cerebral cortex but who, nevertheless, possessed discriminative awareness: for example, distinguishing familiar from unfamiliar people and environments, social interaction, functional vision, orienting, musical preferences, appropriate affective responses, and associative learning. These abilities may reflect 'vertical' plasticity of brainstem and diencephalic structures. The relative rarity of manifest consciousness in congenitally decorticate children could be due largely to an inherent tendency of the label 'developmental vegetative state' to become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Overview
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In the citing paper
“The same facts are observed in congenitally decorticate (hydranencephalic) human beings.”
From The Hard Problem of Consciousness and the Free Energy Principle (2019) · cites this paper as Shewmon et al., 1999
In the citing paper
“the authors found that each of the four children they assessed was conscious.”
From The Hard Problem of Consciousness and the Free Energy Principle (2019) · cites this paper as Shewmon et al., 1999
In the citing paper
“In corroboration, removing the cortex of young mammals does not appear to compromise the sensorimotor coherence, basic autonomic processes, or raw affective responses required for a brainstem-level sense of self ( Kolb and Tees, 1990 ; Panksepp et al., 1994 ; Shewmon et al., 1999 ; Panksepp, 2005 ; Merker, 2007 ).”
From The brain-body disconnect: A somatic sensory basis for trauma-related disorders (2022) · cites this paper as Shewmon et al., 1999
Citations
Cites
(1982) · Trends in Neurosciences · doi:10.1016/0166-2236(82)90076-5 · Cited by 9,150
Large-scale neurocognitive networks and distributed processing for attention, language, and memory
Mesulam, M. (1990) · Annals of Neurology · doi:10.1002/ana.410280502 · Cited by 2,684
Of Human Bonding: Newborns Prefer Their Mothers' Voices
DeCasper, A. J., & Fifer, W. P. (1980) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.7375928 · Cited by 2,317
Pain and Its Effects in the Human Neonate and Fetus
Anand, K. J. S., & Hickey, P. R. (1987) · New England Journal of Medicine · doi:10.1056/nejm198711193172105 · Cited by 1,715
Function of the thalamic reticular complex: the searchlight hypothesis
Crick, F. (1984) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.81.14.4586 · Cited by 1,651
Medical Aspects of the Persistent Vegetative State
The Multi-Society Task Force on PVS (1994) · New England Journal of Medicine · doi:10.1056/nejm199405263302107 · Cited by 1,549
Positron emission tomography study of human brain functional development
Chugani, H. T., Phelps, M. E., & Mazziotta, J. C. (1987) · Annals of Neurology · doi:10.1002/ana.410220408 · Cited by 1,548
Perry, B. D., Pollard, R. A., Blakley, T. L., Baker, W. L., & Vigilante, D. (1995) · Infant Mental Health Journal · doi:10.1002/1097-0355(199524)16:4 · Cited by 1,327
THE FUNCTIONAL ORGANIZATION OF THE MOTOR SYSTEM IN THE MONKEY
Lawrence, D. G., & Kuypers, H. G. J. M. (1968) · Brain · doi:10.1093/brain/91.1.1 · Cited by 1,301
Prenatal maternal speech influences newborns' perception of speech sounds
DeCasper, A. J., & Spence, M. J. (1986) · Infant Behavior and Development · doi:10.1016/0163-6383(86)90025-1 · Cited by 1,145
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Items 201–216 of 216
(2016) · Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht eBooks · doi:10.13109/9783666402616.639
Laureys, S. (2013) · Oxford University Press eBooks · doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195389784.003.0012
Watt, D. F. (2007) · Neuropsychoanalysis · doi:10.1080/15294145.2007.10773555
Hedlund, R. (2019) · Developmental Observer · doi:10.14434/do.v1i2.27758
Watt, D. F. (2007) · Neuropsychoanalysis · doi:10.1080/15294145.2007.10773559
Tye, M. (2021) · Oxford University Press eBooks · doi:10.1093/oso/9780198867234.003.0001
The Brain and the Mind-body-self
Anderson, J. (2022) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-030-99684-0_5
Kanayama, N. (2024) · Journal of The Japan Institute of Electronics Packaging · doi:10.5104/jiep.27.176
The challenges of consciousness research in light of the variations of conscious experience
(2024) · Frontiers research topics · doi:10.3389/978-2-8325-4362-7
Tye, M. (2021) · Oxford University Press eBooks · doi:10.1093/oso/9780198867234.002.0003
Ancient Inner Feelings: Interoceptive Insights into the Evolution of Consciousness
Domínguez, A. A. (2024) · Biological Theory · doi:10.1007/s13752-024-00474-4 · Cited by 1
The Subject of Consciousness, Higher-Order Thought, and Bodily Representation
Yan, K. (2024) · Sophia studies in cross-cultural philosophy of traditions and cultures · doi:10.1007/978-3-031-42123-5_3
Deleuzo–Guattarian de-construction of the mind to re-evaluate undeath
Kaur, U., & Puri, P. (2025) · Metamedicine · doi:10.1007/s11017-025-09726-1
Brainstem Theory of Consciousness
Devor, M. G., & Baron, M. S. (2026) · The Neuroscientist · doi:10.1177/10738584261470362
Affective response to tonal modulation
Korsakova-Kreyn, M. N. (2009)
Metadata
- Authors
- Shewmon, D. A., Holmes, G. L., & Byrne, P. A.
- Affiliations
- Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center (US)
- Venue
- Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 1999-06
- Volume
- 41
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 364-374
- ISSN
- 0012-1622 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2166891515
- Cited by
- 215
- References
- 73
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 11 · 2021: 18 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 13 · 2018: 9 · 2017: 12 · 2016: 14 · 2015: 9 · 2014: 9 · 2013: 11 · 2012: 7
- FWCI
- 1.09
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Clinical Neurology › Traumatic Brain Injury Research
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Philosophy and Theoretical Science
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health › Fetal and Pediatric Neurological Disorders
- Keywords
- consciousness, brain malformations, self-fulfilling prophecy
- MeSH terms
- Brain, Brain Diseases, Child, Consciousness, Female, Humans, Male, Tomography, X-Ray Computed, Persistent Vegetative State
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
