General Anesthesia and Normal Sleep Affect Brain in an Amazingly Similar Way as Consciousness Fades
upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Bytram:
General anesthesia and normal sleep affect brain in an amazingly similar way as consciousness fades:
Explaining the biological basis of human consciousness is one of the greatest challenges of science. [However], previous research results have been confounded by many experimental simplifications.
"One major challenge has been to design a set-up, where brain data in different states differ only in respect to consciousness. Our study overcomes many previous confounders, and for the first time, reveals the neural mechanisms underlying connected consciousness," says Harry Scheinin, Docent of Pharmacology, Anesthesiologist, and the Principal Investigator of the study from the University of Turku, Finland.
[...] "[Our] unique experimental design was the key idea of our study and enabled us to distinguish the changes that were specific to the state of consciousness from the overall effects of anesthesia," explains Annalotta Scheinin, Anesthesiologist, Doctoral Candidate and the first author of the paper.
When PET images of responsive and connected brains were compared with those of unresponsive and disconnected, the scientists found that activity of the thalamus, cingulate cortices and angular gyri were affected independently of the used anesthetic agent, drug concentration and direction of change in the state of consciousness. Strikingly analogous findings were obtained when physiological sleep was compared with sleep-deprived wakefulness.
[...] These findings identify a central core brain network that is fundamental for human consciousness.
"General anesthesia seems to resemble normal sleep more than has traditionally been thought. This interpretation is, however, well in line with our recent electrophysiological findings in another anesthesia study," says Harry Scheinin.
Journal Reference:
Annalotta Scheinin, Oskari Kantonen, Michael Alkire, et al. Foundations of human consciousness: Imaging the twilight zone [open], Journal of Neuroscience (DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0775-20.2020)
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