• HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
Sunday, August 10, 2025
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News Health

Escape from oblivion: How the brain reboots after deep anesthesia

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
May 27, 2021
in Health
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

Innovative experiment demonstrates the resilience of the healthy human brain despite deep general anesthesia

IMAGE

Credit: Jacob Dwyer, Michigan Medicine

Millions of surgical procedures performed each year would not be possible without the aid of general anesthesia, the miraculous medical ability to turn off consciousness in a reversible and controllable way.

Researchers are using this powerful tool to better understand how the brain reconstitutes consciousness and cognition after disruptions caused by sleep, medical procedures requiring anesthesia, and neurological dysfunctions such as coma.

In a new study published in the journal eLife, a team led by anesthesiologists George Mashour, M.D., Ph.D. of University of Michigan Medical School, Michigan Medicine, Max Kelz, M.D., Ph.D. of the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, and Michael Avidan, MBBCh of the Washington University School of Medicine used the anesthetics propofol and isoflurane in humans to study the patterns of reemerging consciousness and cognitive function after anesthesia.

In the study, 30 healthy adults were anesthetized for three hours. Their brain activity was measured with EEG and their sleep-wake activity was measured before and after the experiment. Each participant was given cognitive tests–designed to measure reaction speed, memory, and other functions–before receiving anesthesia, right after the return of consciousness, and then every 30 minutes thereafter.

The study team sought to answer several fundamental questions: Just how does the brain wake up after profound unconsciousness–all at once or do some areas and functions come back online first? If so, which?

“How the brain recovers from states of unconsciousness is important clinically but also gives us insight into the neural basis of consciousness itself,” says Mashour.

After the anesthetic was discontinued and participants regained consciousness, cognitive testing began. A second control group of study participants, who did not receive general anesthesia and stayed awake, also completed tests over the same time period.

Analyzing EEG and test performance, the researchers found that recovery of consciousness and cognition is a process that unfolds over time, not all at once. To the investigators’ surprise, one of the brain functions that came online first was abstract problem solving, controlled by the prefrontal cortex, whereas other functions such as reaction time and attention took longer to recover.

“Although initially surprising, it makes sense in evolutionary terms that higher cognition needs to recover early. If, for example, someone was waking up to a threat, structures like the prefrontal cortex would be important for categorizing the situation and generating an action plan,” says Kelz.

The EEG readings revealed that the frontal regions of the brain were especially active around the time of recovery. Importantly, within three hours of being deeply anesthetized for a prolonged period of time, participants were able to recover cognitive function to approximately the same level as the group that stayed awake during that time. Furthermore, their sleep schedule in the days after the experiment did not appear to be affected.

“This suggests that the healthy human brain is resilient, even with a prolonged exposure to deep anesthesia. Clinically, this implies that some of the disorders of cognition that we often see for days or even weeks during recovery from anesthesia and surgery–such as delirium–might be attributable to factors other than lingering effects of anesthetic drugs on the brain,” says Avidan.

###

This study was funded by a collaborative grant from the James S. McDonnell Foundation, St. Louis, MO; National Institutes of Health (Bethesda, MD, USA) grant T32GM112596; and the anesthesiology departments of the University of Michigan, University of Pennsylvania and Washington University.

Paper Cited: “Recovery of consciousness and cognition after general anesthesia in humans,” eLife. DOI: 10.7554/eLife.59525

Media Contact
Kelly Malcom
[email protected]

Original Source

https://labblog.uofmhealth.org/lab-report/escape-from-oblivion-how-brain-reboots-after-deep-anesthesia

Related Journal Article

http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.59525

Tags: Critical Care/Emergency MedicineMedicine/HealthMemory/Cognitive ProcessesneurobiologyPainPerception/AwarenessSleep/Sleep DisordersSurgery
Share12Tweet8Share2ShareShareShare2

Related Posts

Neuroprosthetics Revolutionize Gut Motility and Metabolism

Neuroprosthetics Revolutionize Gut Motility and Metabolism

August 10, 2025
blank

Multivalent mRNA Vaccine Protects Mice from Monkeypox

August 10, 2025

AI Synthesizes Causal Evidence Across Study Designs

August 9, 2025

Non-Coding Lung Cancer Genes Found in 13,722 Chinese

August 9, 2025
Please login to join discussion

POPULAR NEWS

  • blank

    Molecules in Focus: Capturing the Timeless Dance of Particles

    138 shares
    Share 55 Tweet 35
  • Neuropsychiatric Risks Linked to COVID-19 Revealed

    77 shares
    Share 31 Tweet 19
  • Modified DASH Diet Reduces Blood Sugar Levels in Adults with Type 2 Diabetes, Clinical Trial Finds

    56 shares
    Share 22 Tweet 14
  • Overlooked Dangers: Debunking Common Myths About Skin Cancer Risk in the U.S.

    61 shares
    Share 24 Tweet 15

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Recent News

Uranium Complex Converts Dinitrogen to Ammonia Catalytically

Kombucha’s Pharmaceutical Potential: Production, Patents, Challenges

Enhancing Lithium Storage in Zn3Mo2O9 with Carbon Coating

  • Contact Us

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.