Shifts in Brain Dynamics and Drivers of Consciousness State Transitions
arXiv Preprint Archive July 9, 2024 Joseph Bodenheimer, Paul Bogdan, Sérgio Pequito et al.
The brain's large-scale dynamics change in distinct ways as people move between wakefulness, light sedation, deep sedation, and recovery. Using a model that treats the brain as a linear time-invariant system with unknown inputs, the authors show that the stability and frequency of oscillatory modes shift across these states. The same model identifies external drivers that shape brain activity during naturalistic auditory stimulation, revealing how stimulus-induced co-activity propagation differs across consciousness levels. The approach captures brain-wide changes that conventional methods miss, and these findings may help develop better biomarkers for consciousness recovery in disorders of consciousness.