Brain Network Mechanism of Fast and Slow Recoveries in Pharmacologically and Pathologically Induced Unconsciousness

项目摘要/摘要 目前尚不清楚为什么一些患者从昏迷(麻醉和昏迷)中恢复的时间相对较短。 更快的速度，而其他人则显示恢复时间延长；或者根本不能从昏迷中恢复。传统上， 填补我们知识中这一关键空白的方法主要集中在皮质下核团，这些核团与 觉醒(睡眠、清醒、麻醉)，但最近的神经成像研究表明，意识，而不是 是局部神经回路的产物，很可能是复杂的 整个大脑的神经元在空间和时间上分布的活动之间的相互作用。积累 证据表明，大脑中的临界性，即秩序和无序之间的最佳平衡状态，存在 高信息量的，综合的和敏感的状态，以至于它被认为是 意识的出现。我们最近证明了，在一般情况下，意识水平 麻醉与大脑危急程度相关，其他研究报告也有类似的发现。 组。因此，我们假设，促进大脑网络走向临界点将加速 从麻醉和意识障碍中恢复意识。然而，控制关键程度是一种 这是一个具有挑战性的问题，还没有在大脑网络中尝试过。使用一种新的方法，我们将应用 爆炸性同步，即网络的微小扰动可能导致突然状态的现象 通过全球网络同步过渡，控制大脑临界点。通过对机制重新概念化 爆炸性同步作为临界性转变的一种机制，我们将能够系统地快速研究 以及大脑临界性的缓慢转变以及对状态转变的影响。我们的长期目标是利用 发展神经科学基础的物理学原理，为加速从 麻醉和昏迷。拟议研究的目标是探索爆炸性同步作为一种 恢复意识的机制。这项拟议研究的基本原理是 临界性转变和意识快速/缓慢恢复之间的关系将提供对 管理快速和慢速状态转换的基本网络级别机制，还将帮助 旨在加速从昏迷中恢复的翻译研究。我们将进行以下两项工作 具体目标：1)确定大脑网络中的爆炸性同步与 从麻醉和昏迷中恢复意识。我们将使用计算模型来识别大脑 与快速和慢速状态转换相关联的网络条件，并使用经验数据测试模型预测 来自麻醉(人和大鼠)和昏迷(人类)的研究。2)确定大脑变化的因果影响 网络临界性对大鼠麻醉后意识恢复的影响。我们将使用我们最近报告的速率 麻醉快苏醒与慢苏醒模型间因果关系的探讨 意识的恢复和大脑的临界性。

Project Summary/Abstract It is not understood why some patients recover from unconsciousness (anesthesia and coma) at a relatively faster rate while others show prolonged recovery times; or do not recover at all from coma. Traditionally, the approaches to fill this critical gap in our knowledge has focused on the subcortical nuclei linked to the states of arousal (sleep, wake, anesthesia), but recent neuroimaging studies suggest that consciousness, rather than being a product of a localized neural circuit, is likely to be an emergent phenomenon resulting from complex interactions between spatially and temporally distributed activity of neurons across the brain. Accumulating evidences suggest that criticality, an optimal balanced state between order and disorder, in the brain presents highly informative, integrative, and sensitive state such that it has been suggested as a necessary condition for the emergence of consciousness. We recently demonstrated that the level of consciousness during general anesthesia correlates with the degree of brain criticality, and similar findings have been reported from other groups. Therefore, we hypothesize that facilitating the brain networks towards criticality will accelerate the recovery of consciousness from anesthesia and disorders of consciousness. However, controlling criticality is a challenging problem and has not been attempted in the brain networks. Using a novel approach, we will apply explosive synchronization, a phenomenon wherein a small perturbation to a network can lead to an abrupt state transition through global network synchronization, to control brain criticality. By reconceptualizing the mechanism of explosive synchronization as a mechanism of criticality transition, we will be able to systematically study fast and slow transitions in brain criticality and the effect on state transitions. Our long-term goal is to use the principles of physics to develop neuroscientific foundations for the strategies to accelerate the recovery from anesthesia and coma. The objective of the proposed studies is to explore explosive synchronization as a mechanism for the recovery of consciousness. The rationale for the proposed research is that characterization of the relationship between criticality transition and fast/slow recovery of consciousness will provide insights into the fundamental network level mechanisms that govern fast and slow state transitions and will also help inform translational studies aimed at accelerating recovery from unconsciousness. We will pursue the following two specific aims: 1) Determine the relationship between explosive synchronization in the brain networks and the recovery of consciousness from anesthesia and coma. We will use computational modeling to identify the brain network conditions linked to fast and slow state transitions, and test the model predictions using empirical data from anesthesia (human and rat) and coma (human) studies. 2) Determine the causal effect of changes in brain network criticality on the recovery of consciousness from anesthesia in rat. We will use our recently reported rat models of fast and slow recovery of consciousness from anesthesia to investigate a causal relationship between recovery of consciousness and brain criticality.