General anaesthesia

…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

Brain rhythms in the alpha frequency range [8Hz-12Hz] are present in idling conditions and sleep. For instance, a prominent occipital alpha wave emerges in mammals when the subjects closes eyes (alpha generation) and it is blocked when opening eyes (alpha blocking). This switch in alpha power is accompanied by an inverse switch in gamma activity [1]. Considering input as random input fluctuations, this switch may result from an alteration in exogenous fluctuations. In a first part, the work proposes a mathematical mesoscopic neural mass model for the cortico-thalamic feedback (CTF) loop derive

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

…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