Time rescaling reproduces EEG behavior during transition from propofol anesthesia-induced unconsciousness to consciousness

Abstract

General anesthesia (GA) is a reversible manipulation of consciousness whose mechanism is mysterious at the level of neural networks leaving space for several competing hypotheses. We recorded electrocorticography (ECoG) signals in patients who underwent intracranial monitoring during awake surgery for the treatment of cerebral tumors in functional areas of the brain. Therefore, we recorded the transition from unconsciousness to consciousness directly on the brain surface. Using frequency resolved interferometry; we studied the intermediate ECoG frequencies (4–40 Hz). In the theoretical study, we used a computational Jansen and Rit neuron model to simulate recovery of consciousness (ROC). During ROC, we found that f increased by a factor equal to 1.62 ± 0.09, and δf varied by the same factor (1.61 ± 0.09) suggesting the existence of a scaling factor. We accelerated the time course of an unconscious EEG trace by an approximate factor 1.6 and we showed that the resulting EEG trace match the conscious state. Using the theoretical model, we successfully reproduced this behavior. We show that the recovery of consciousness corresponds to a transition in the frequency (f, δf) space, which is exactly reproduced by a simple time rescaling. These findings may perhaps be applied to other altered consciousness states.