Our brains create consciousness through an intricate dance of neural circuits, from tiny local networks to vast brain-spanning connections. New research reveals how specific inhibitory neurons help orchestrate this complex symphony, while the balance between fast local signals and slower long-distance communication proves crucial for awareness. Understanding these mechanisms offers hope for treating consciousness disorders and explains how our brains generate our conscious experience.
A computational model called COALIA simulates human cortical micro-circuits, including specific neuron types and thalamo-cortical regulation of cortico-cortical connectivity. The model generates EEG that matches brain rhythms recorded in humans during wakefulness and sleep. It reproduces disynaptic disinhibition of basket cells and pyramidal neurons via long-range activation of VIP interneurons. The model predicts that thalamic output strength and dynamics control local and long-range cortical information processing. It also reproduces and explains clinical TMS-evoked EEG complexity in disorders of consciousness patients and healthy volunteers through modulation of thalamo-cortical connectivity governing cortico-cortical communication.