title: Recovery of consciousness is mediated by a network of discrete metastable activity states.
abstract: It is not clear how, after a large perturbation, the brain explores the vast space of potential neuronal activity states to recover those compatible with consciousness. Here, we analyze recovery from pharmacologically induced coma to show that neuronal activity en route to consciousness is confined to a low-dimensional subspace. In this subspace, neuronal activity forms discrete metastable states persistent on the scale of minutes. The network of transitions that links these metastable states is structured such that some states form hubs that connect groups of otherwise disconnected states. Although many paths through the network are possible, to ultimately enter the activity state compatible with consciousness, the brain must first pass through these hubs in an orderly fashion. This organization of metastable states, along with dramatic dimensionality reduction, significantly simplifies the task of sampling the parameter space to recover the state consistent with wakefulness on a physiologically relevant timescale.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095;
authors.forename: Andrew E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Hudson
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Neurobiology and Behavior, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY 10065; and.
authors.forename: Diany Paola
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Calderon
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Neurobiology and Behavior, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY 10065; and proekt@gmail.com pfaff@rockefeller.edu.
authors.forename: Donald W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Pfaff
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Neurobiology and Behavior, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY 10065; andDepartment of Anesthesiology, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY 10021 proekt@gmail.com pfaff@rockefeller.edu.
authors.forename: Alex
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9272-5337
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Proekt
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003128:Coma / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003243:Consciousness; D009415:Nerve Net; D051381:Rats
keywords: anesthesia; emergence; spectral analysis; state transitions