Scientists at the University of Michigan found that in an unconscious state in the human brain, interaction between different regions becomes more difficult, and local areas become more connected. Thus, the researchers concluded that consciousness is the result of the integration of separate parts of the brain. Writes about this publication ScienceAlert !.
Neuroscientists have studied the level of blood flow in certain nerve tissues using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The procedure was performed on 23 patients who were either in a vegetative state or under anesthesia. It turned out that in the early stages of sedation, information processing speed slows down, and local neural networks increase their own degree of connectivity.
Scientists, based on the data of the encephalogram, also calculated the Φ (Greek φι) index, which shows the degree of information integration, which is a condition for the emergence of consciousness in a complex system. As the brain becomes more and more modular during anesthesia, that is, it “breaks down” into weakly interacting parts, the degree of integration decreases. As a result, in an unconscious state, there is no effective exchange of information in the central nervous system.