The majority of studies considering patients with disorders of consciousness (DOC) are observational. The present project aims to test the hypotheses for the emergence of consciousness by studying cerebral dysfunction in pathological states of consciousness on a mechanistic level. This will be achieved through multimodal neuroimaging/ neurophysiology and a biophysical modelling framework. The studies will comprise behavioral, electrical (EEG) with simultaneous metabolic (FDG-PET), and structural MRI (i.e. T1 and DWI) assessments. This project aims to gain understanding (1) of cerebral structural-functional organization, and (2) how this organization is disturbed in patients with severe brain injury and consciousness disorders. The experimental data of will serve to build a whole-brain computational model at the network level during resting-state and virtual perturbation to probe the capacity for consciousness. The biophysical model does not know limitations inherent to observational studies (i.e. data availability and heterogeneity, stimulation protocols). These studies will allow to test different consciousness supporting hypotheses, including the global, mesocircuit and default mode network hypotheses without a priori region or network selection and could guide clinical diagnosis, outcome prediction and treatment selection.