Scale-free functional connectivity of the brain is maintained in anesthetized healthy participants but not in patients with unresponsive wakefulness syndrome.

ABSTRACT: Loss of consciousness in anesthetized healthy participants and in patients with unresponsive wakefulness syndrome (UWS) is associated with substantial alterations of functional connectivity across large-scale brain networks. Yet, a prominent distinction between the two cases is that after anesthesia, brain connectivity and consciousness are spontaneously restored, whereas in patients with UWS this restoration fails to occur, but why? A possible explanation is that the self-organizing capability of the brain is compromised in patients with UWS but not in healthy participants undergoing anesthesia. According to the theory of self-organized criticality, many natural complex systems, including the brain, evolve spontaneously to a critical state wherein system behaviors display spatial and/or t

SUBMITTER: Liu X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3960221 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature