Recovery of Consciousness and Cognition After General Anesthesia in Humans

Overview

Journal Elife

Specialty Biology

Date 2021 May 10

PMID 33970101

Citations 43

Authors

George A Mashour

Ben JA Palanca

Mathias Basner

Duan Li

Wei Wang

Stefanie Blain-Moraes

Nan Lin

Kaitlyn Maier

Maxwell Muench

Vijay Tarnal

Giancarlo Vanini

E Andrew Ochroch

Rosemary Hogg

Marlon Schwartz

Hannah Maybrier

Randall Hardie

Ellen Janke

Goodarz Golmirzaie

Paul Picton

Andrew R McKinstry-Wu

Michael S Avidan

Max B Kelz

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Understanding how the brain recovers from unconsciousness can inform neurobiological theories of consciousness and guide clinical investigation. To address this question, we conducted a multicenter study of 60 healthy humans, half of whom received general anesthesia for 3 hr and half of whom served as awake controls. We administered a battery of neurocognitive tests and recorded electroencephalography to assess cortical dynamics. We hypothesized that recovery of consciousness and cognition is an extended process, with differential recovery of cognitive functions that would commence with return of responsiveness and end with return of executive function, mediated by prefrontal cortex. We found that, just prior to the recovery of consciousness, frontal-parietal dynamics returned to baseline. Consistent with our hypothesis, cognitive reconstitution after anesthesia evolved over time. Contrary to our hypothesis, executive function returned first. Early engagement of prefrontal cortex in recovery of consciousness and cognition is consistent with global neuronal workspace theory.

Citing Articles

Anesthetic spindles serve as EEG markers of the depth variations in anesthesia induced by multifarious general anesthetics in mouse experiments.

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Consciousness and Energy Processing in Neural Systems.

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Measuring the dynamic balance of integration and segregation underlying consciousness, anesthesia, and sleep in humans.

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Propofol disrupts the functional core-matrix architecture of the thalamus in humans.

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[Current progress on characteristics of intracranial electrophysiology related to prolonged disorders of consciousness].

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