title: Feedback suppression in anesthesia. Is it reversible?
abstract: Information processing that subserves conscious cognitive functions is thought to involve recurrent signaling through feedforward and feedback loops among hierarchically arranged functional regions of the cerebral cortex. In the current issue of Consciousness and Cognition, Lee et al. report that loss of consciousness, as produced by a bolus injection of the general anesthetic propofol to human volunteers, was accompanied by a decrease in wide-band EEG feedback connectivity from frontal cortex to parietal cortex, confirming a prediction from previous experimental studies. Interestingly, frontoparietal feedback connectivity did not fully recover after the anesthetic effect wore off and the subjects first opened their eyes in response to a verbal command. Possible interpretations of the results and their implications with respect to the neural correlates of consciousness and unconsciousness are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, Medical College of Wisconsin, 8701 Watertown Plank Road, Milwaukee, WI 53226, USA. ahudetz@mcw.edu
authors.forename: Anthony G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Hudetz
mesh_terms: D000768:Anesthesia, General; D018686:Anesthetics, Intravenous; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D003243:Consciousness / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology*; D003344:Cortical Synchronization / Q000187:drug effects; D004569:Electroencephalography; D025461:Feedback, Physiological / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology*; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D007262:Infusions, Intravenous; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D015742:Propofol; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D014851:Wakefulness / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D018686:Anesthetics, Intravenous; D015742:Propofol