A new surgical protocol creates a large, durable, resealable cranial window in mice that preserves the dura mater, enabling stable, long-term recordings from over 1,000 electrodes. This technique allows simultaneous surface and deep brain recordings from the default mode network over several weeks, offering a platform to study network-wide brain dynamics and evaluate chronic effects of treatments for disorders like major depressive disorder.
Partial consciousness—where the presence but not identity of an object can be reported—and full consciousness have distinct neural signatures. Recording brain activity with magnetoencephalography during a visual task, partial consciousness was linked to an early increase in evoked activity and theta/low-alpha-band oscillations. Full consciousness additionally involved late evoked activity and beta-band oscillations. Stronger evoked activity and a late increase in theta oscillations in higher-order visual regions, posterior parietal, and prefrontal cortices dissociated full from partial consciousness. The findings indicate that both evoked activity and theta oscillations differentiate these levels of conscious perception.