What Language Is the Brain Speaking?

Editorial| May 2024 What Language Is the Brain Speaking? Jamie W. Sleigh, M.D.; Jamie W. Sleigh, M.D. 1Department of Anaesthesiology, Waikato Clinical Campus, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, University of Auckland, Hamilton, New Zealand. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1966-5825 Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Logan Voss, Ph.D. Logan Voss, Ph.D. 2Department of Anaesthesiology, Waikato Clinical Campus, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, University of Auckland, Hamilton, New Zealand. Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Author and Article Information This editorial accompanies the article on p. 935. Accepted for publication January 25, 2024 Address correspondence to Dr. Sleigh: Anesthesiology May 2024, Vol. 140, 881–883. https://doi.org/10.1097/ALN.0000000000004931 Connected Content Article: State-related Electroencephalography Microstate Complexity during Propofol- and Esketamine-induced Unconsciousness Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Cite Icon Cite Get Permissions Search Site Citation Jamie W. Sleigh, Logan Voss; What Language Is the Brain Speaking?. Anesthesiology 2024; 140:881–883 doi: https://doi.org/10.1097/ALN.0000000000004931 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentAll PublicationsAnesthesiology Search Advanced Search Topics: brain, languages The prevailing paradigm of brain function assumes that the neural correlates of consciousness are (somehow) to be found in the time-evolution of coordinated brain activity. If so, we would expect that a state of general anesthesia should be marked by severe disruptions to these processes. The question arises what measure of brain activity best captures these changes. Traditionally various indices of the frequency content in a single electroencephalogram (EEG) channel have been used to describe how the brain activity alters with anesthetic-induced loss of responsiveness. However, a big unresolved issue is that different classes of anesthetic drugs can produce the same behavioral effects (unresponsiveness) but with completely different effects on EEG frequencies. Notably, propofol tends to cause the EEG to be dominated by slow waves, whereas ketamine increases the power in high frequencies. This has led to a search for different ways of capturing brain activity involving higher-order multichannel descriptions... You do not currently have access to this content.