Frequency-specific microstate correlates of ciprofol-induced alterations of consciousness.
Frontiers in Neuroscience January 1, 2026 Fei Yan, Yansong Li, Ni Xiong et al.
Ciprofol, a GABAergic intravenous anesthetic, induces a frequency-specific reorganization of brain network dynamics measurable via EEG microstates. During loss of consciousness, delta and alpha power increased; alpha-band microstates showed reduced duration and increased occurrence, while microstate D in delta-theta bands decreased. Recovery of consciousness was marked by elevated beta-gamma activity and altered microstates A, C, and E. Machine learning classifiers distinguished conscious states with highest accuracy (0.971) when combining features from all frequency bands, compared to broadband features alone (0.754). The findings suggest that frequency-resolved microstate metrics may serve as sensitive markers of anesthetic-induced brain state transitions.