A hidden Markov model reliably characterizes ketamine-induced spectral dynamics in macaque LFP and human EEG
medRxiv Preprint Server November 12, 2020 Indie C. Garwood, Sourish Chakravarty, Jacob Donoghue et al. preprint
Ketamine, an anesthetic and psychoactive drug, produces alternating patterns of brain activity: bursts of gamma oscillations (30-50 Hz) and slow oscillations (0.1-10 Hz). A hidden Markov model (HMM) was applied to brainwave data from two non-human primates and nine human subjects receiving anesthetic doses of ketamine. The model revealed distinct states corresponding to gamma bursts and slow oscillations, with intermediate states. Mean gamma burst durations were 2.5 seconds (non-human primate 1), 1.2 seconds (non-human primate 2), and 2.7 seconds (humans). Mean slow oscillation durations were 1.6 seconds, 0.7 seconds, and 2.8 seconds, respectively. This framework provides quantitative constraints for understanding how ketamine alters states of consciousness.