Recovery of consciousness is mediated by a network of discrete metastable activity states

It is not clear how, after a large perturbation, the brain explores the vast space of potential neuronal activity states to recover those compatible with consciousness. Here, we analyze recovery from pharmacologically induced coma to show that neuronal activity en route to consciousness is confined...

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Published inProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS Vol. 111; no. 25; pp. 9283 - 9288
Main Authors Hudson, Andrew E., Calderon, Diany Paola, Pfaff, Donald W., Proekt, Alex
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States National Academy of Sciences 24.06.2014
National Acad Sciences
Subjects
Anatomy
Anesthesia
Anesthetics
Animals
Biological Sciences
Brain
Coma
Coma - physiopathology
Consciousness
Electroencephalography
Ellipsoids
General anesthesia
Metastability
Metastasis
Nerve Net
Neurons
Random walk
Rats
Thalamus
spectral analysis
emergence
state transitions
anesthesia
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Summary:It is not clear how, after a large perturbation, the brain explores the vast space of potential neuronal activity states to recover those compatible with consciousness. Here, we analyze recovery from pharmacologically induced coma to show that neuronal activity en route to consciousness is confined to a low-dimensional subspace. In this subspace, neuronal activity forms discrete metastable states persistent on the scale of minutes. The network of transitions that links these metastable states is structured such that some states form hubs that connect groups of otherwise disconnected states. Although many paths through the network are possible, to ultimately enter the activity state compatible with consciousness, the brain must first pass through these hubs in an orderly fashion. This organization of metastable states, along with dramatic dimensionality reduction, significantly simplifies the task of sampling the parameter space to recover the state consistent with wakefulness on a physiologically relevant timescale.
Bibliography:http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1408296111
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Author contributions: A.E.H., D.P.C., D.W.P., and A.P. designed research; A.E.H., D.P.C., and A.P. performed research; A.E.H. and A.P. analyzed data; and A.E.H., D.P.C., D.W.P., and A.P. wrote the paper.
Contributed by Donald W. Pfaff, May 13, 2014 (sent for review January 15, 2014)
1A.E.H. and D.P.C. contributed equally to this work.
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.1408296111