Rhythmic neuronal synchronization across large-scale networks is thought to play a key role in the regulation of conscious states. Changes in neuronal oscillation amplitude across states of consciousness have been widely reported, but little is known about possible changes in the temporal dynamics of these oscillations. The temporal structure of brain oscillations may provide novel insights...
Detecting covert consciousness in behaviorally unresponsive patients by brain imaging is of great interest, but a reproducible model and evidence from independent sources is still lacking. Here we demonstrate the possibility of using general anesthetics in a within-subjects study design to test methods or statistical paradigms of assessing covert consciousness. Using noninvasive neuroimaging in...
Hysteresis, the discrepancy in forward and reverse pathways of state transitions, is observed during changing levels of consciousness. Identifying the underlying mechanism of hysteresis phenomena in the brain will enhance the ability to understand, monitor, and control state transitions related to consciousness. We hypothesized that hysteresis in brain networks shares the same underlying...
Current paradigms in Western medicine often fail to differentiate clearly between consciousness, responsiveness and personhood. The growing number of individuals who exist with sustainable cardiopulmonary systems but who are behaviorally unresponsive has prompted a cultural reconsideration of the relationship between the presence of consciousness and what it means to be a person. This article...
BackgroundDespite its designation as a 'dissociative anaesthetic,' the dissociative and psychoactive effects of ketamine remain incompletely understood. The goal of this study was to characterise the subjective experiences and accompanying EEG changes with subanaesthetic doses of ketamine.MethodsHigh-density EEG was recorded in 15 human volunteers before, during, and after subanaesthetic...
The integrated information theory (IIT) proposes a quantitative measure, denoted as Φ, of the amount of integrated information in a physical system, which is postulated to have an identity relationship with consciousness. IIT predicts that the value of Φ estimated from brain activities represents the level of consciousness across phylogeny and functional states. Practical limitations, such as...
Abstract There is current controversy regarding the role of prefrontal versus posterior cortices in consciousness. Clinical and correlative data have been used both to support and refute a causal role for prefrontal cortex in the level of consciousness, but a definitive relationship has not been demonstrated. We used anesthetic-induced unconsciousness as a model system to study the effect of...
The biological basis of consciousness is one of the most challenging and fundamental questions in 21st century science. A related pursuit aims to identify the neural correlates and causes of unconsciousness. We review current trends in the investigation of physiological, pharmacological, and pathological states of unconsciousness at the level of large-scale functional brain networks. We focus...
How the brain reconstitutes consciousness and cognition after a major perturbation like general anesthesia is an important question with significant neuroscientific and clinical implications. Recent empirical studies in animals and humans suggest that the recovery of consciousness after anesthesia is not random but ordered. Emergence patterns have been classified as progressive and abrupt...
There has been controversy regarding the precise mechanisms of anesthetic-induced unconsciousness, with two salient approaches that have emerged within systems neuroscience. One prominent approach is the "bottom up" paradigm, which argues that anesthetics suppress consciousness by modulating sleep-wake nuclei and neural circuits in the brainstem and diencephalon that have evolved to control...
Recent data from our laboratory demonstrate that high-frequency gamma connectivity across the cortex is present during consciousness and depressed during unconsciousness. However, these data were derived from static and well-defined states of arousal rather than during transitions that would suggest functional relevance. We also recently found that subanesthetic ketamine administered during...
A quest for a systems-level neuroscientific basis of anesthetic-induced loss and return of consciousness has been in the forefront of research for the past 2 decades. Recent advances toward the discovery of underlying mechanisms have been achieved using experimental electrophysiology, multichannel electroencephalography, magnetoencephalography, and functional magnetic resonance imaging. By the...
The balance of global integration and functional specialization is a critical feature of efficient brain networks, but the relationship of global topology, local node dynamics and information flow across networks has yet to be identified. One critical step in elucidating this relationship is the identification of governing principles underlying the directionality of interactions between nodes....
"Cognitive unbinding" refers to the impaired synthesis of specialized cognitive activities in the brain and has been proposed as a mechanistic paradigm of unconsciousness. This article draws on recent neuroscientific data to revisit the tenets and predictions of cognitive unbinding, using general anesthesia as a representative state of unconsciousness. Current evidence from neuroimaging and...
Abstract The psychedelic experience has been reported since antiquity, but there is relatively little known about the underlying neural mechanisms. A recent neuroimaging study on psilocybin revealed a pattern of decreased cerebral blood flow and functional disconnections that is surprisingly similar to that caused by various anesthetics. In this article, the authors review historical examples...
INTRODUCTION: General anesthesia induces unconsciousness along with functional changes in brain networks. Considering the essential role of hub structures for efficient information transmission, the authors hypothesized that anesthetics have an effect on the hub structure of functional brain networks. METHODS: Graph theoretical network analysis was carried out to study the network properties of...
The brain is assumed to be hypoactive during cardiac arrest. However, the neurophysiological state of the brain immediately following cardiac arrest has not been systematically investigated. In this study, we performed continuous electroencephalography in rats undergoing experimental cardiac arrest and analyzed changes in power density, coherence, directed connectivity, and cross-frequency...
General anesthesia significantly alters brain network connectivity. Graph-theoretical analysis has been used extensively to study static brain networks but may be limited in the study of rapidly changing brain connectivity during induction of or recovery from general anesthesia. Here we introduce a novel method to study the temporal evolution of network modules in the brain. We recorded...
Are animals conscious? If so, when did consciousness evolve? We address these long-standing and essential questions using a modern neuroscientific approach that draws on diverse fields such as consciousness studies, evolutionary neurobiology, animal psychology, and anesthesiology. We propose that the stepwise emergence from general anesthesia can serve as a reproducible model to study the...
INTRODUCTION: Directional connectivity from anterior to posterior brain regions (or "feedback" connectivity) has been shown to be inhibited by propofol and sevoflurane. In this study the authors tested the hypothesis that ketamine would also inhibit cortical feedback connectivity in frontoparietal networks. METHODS: Surgical patients (n = 30) were recruited for induction of anesthesia with...
It is widely acknowledged that a complete theory of consciousness should explain general consciousness (what makes a state conscious at all) and specific consciousness (what gives a conscious state its particular phenomenal quality). We defend first-order representationalism, which argues that consciousness consists of sensory representations directly available to the subject for action...
Current thinking suggests that dissociation could be a significant comorbid diagnosis in a proportion of schizophrenic patients with a history of trauma. This potentially may explain the term "schizophrenia" in its original definition by Bleuler, as influenced by his clinical experience and personal view. Additionally, recent findings suggest a partial overlap between dissociative symptoms and...
From Joseph in the book of Genesis to the 2010 blockbuster Inception, dreams have been a source of fascination. The attraction seems to derive, in part, from their bizarreness. Indeed, it is rare to hear someone muse that “I had the craziest wakefulness last night.” But we are also compelled by the allure that dreams are imbued with meaning or that they reveal something about our psyche....