Dissemin is shutting down on January 1st, 2025

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Nature Research, Nature Communications, 1(13), 2022

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-28451-0

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Quantifying arousal and awareness in altered states of consciousness using interpretable deep learning

This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

AbstractConsciousness can be defined by two components: arousal (wakefulness) and awareness (subjective experience). However, neurophysiological consciousness metrics able to disentangle between these components have not been reported. Here, we propose an explainable consciousness indicator (ECI) using deep learning to disentangle the components of consciousness. We employ electroencephalographic (EEG) responses to transcranial magnetic stimulation under various conditions, including sleep (n = 6), general anesthesia (n = 16), and severe brain injury (n = 34). We also test our framework using resting-state EEG under general anesthesia (n = 15) and severe brain injury (n = 34). ECI simultaneously quantifies arousal and awareness under physiological, pharmacological, and pathological conditions. Particularly, ketamine-induced anesthesia and rapid eye movement sleep with low arousal and high awareness are clearly distinguished from other states. In addition, parietal regions appear most relevant for quantifying arousal and awareness. This indicator provides insights into the neural correlates of altered states of consciousness.