Topic: general anaesthesia

The brain adjusts its internal activity to direct visual and auditory attention and regulate responses to external stimuli. Appropriate endogenous activity may support normal cognition and behaviour, while its modulation can also produce dysfunction. Beginning with mathematical models of general anaesthesia, this talk examines how changes in noisy endogenous activity can fragment functional brain organization and account for loss of consciousness. Anaesthesia experiments in ferrets support the theoretical result. Further experimental examples are discussed to show how underlying internal noise

Objective and quantitative assessment of the level of consciousness is a medical demand in clinics and a theoretical challenge to be addressed. Although a growing body of literature suggests different measures to distinguish the levels of consciousness, a systematic comparison of different measures is lacking. Such a systematic comparison, however, is necessary since it assures us of the best solutions to the problem in terms of prediction accuracy and explanatory power but also simplicity and applicability. In this study, we propose taking a massive comparative approach to assess the level of

Clinical assessment of consciousness is a significant issue, with recent research suggesting some brain-damaged patients who are assessed as unconscious are in fact conscious. Misdiagnosis of consciousness can also be detrimental when it comes to general anaesthesia, causing numerous psychological problems, including post-traumatic stress disorder. Avoiding awareness with overdose of anaesthetics, however, can also lead to cognitive impairment. Currently available objective assessment of consciousness is limited in accuracy or requires expensive equipment with major barriers to translation. I