Shows sensory responses to sounds in unconscious individuals, suggesting brain activity persists during anesthesia.
Detailed neural recordings were made from a brain structure called the hippocampus in unconscious anaesthetized people. Neuronal activity responded to ‘oddballs’ in a series of auditory tones, encoded complex meaning-related properties of language and could even predict upcoming words in a heard phrase. Neurons in the hippocampuses of unconscious people undergoing brain surgery could predict upcoming words in a heard phrase.
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