Cortical signatures linked to behavior quantitatively track arousal levels.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America May 13, 2025 Sijia Gao, Yelena Bibineyshvili, Seyed A Safavynia et al.
A repeated, temporally discrete dynamical pattern called an 'Arousal Unit' (AU) appears during recovery of consciousness from anesthesia and brain injury coma in rodents. The pattern was prospectively validated in neonatal humans recovering from static hypoxic injuries and in senior patients emerging from anesthesia, indicating generalizability. AUs lawfully link changes in spectral power and breathing frequency and reliably associate with motor changes. Distinctive cortical patterns within AUs can be transformed into arousal indices that determine arousal levels. The reliability of these events is demonstrated across intact and brain-injured states and translates to the human brain. Extracting these stereotyped dynamics could aid anesthesia monitoring, tracking coma recovery, and identifying cognitive motor dissociation.