Ketamine-Medetomidine General Anesthesia Occurs With Alternation of Cortical Electrophysiological Activity Between High and Low Complex States

TL;DR

This study investigates how ketamine-medetomidine anesthesia causes rapid and dynamic alternations in cortical electrophysiological complexity, revealing fluctuations between high and low states during unconsciousness in a non-human primate.

Contribution

It provides novel experimental evidence of cortical complexity fluctuations during anesthesia, using high-resolution ECoG data and complexity metrics, advancing understanding of anesthetic effects on brain dynamics.

Findings

Cortical complexity remains stable during wakefulness.

Transition to unconsciousness occurs within 30-40 seconds.

During anesthesia, cortical complexity fluctuates between high and low states.

Abstract

Anesthetic agents are known to induce a range of alterations in cortical electrophysiological activity, such as the rise of signature patterns, changes in statistical properties, and altered dynamic behavior of neural records. Plenty of methods can be used to monitor these changes, among them complexity metrics demonstrated to have the power to discriminate states involving distinct levels of awareness. There is a consensus that anesthetic drugs can interfere with neural activities at different levels and time scales, being able to induce alterations both locally and in the spatiotemporal patterns established throughout the whole cortex. However, it is still unclear how such changes in the complexity of cortical activity are supposed to occur, and experimental evidence is still needed. For this purpose, we have analyzed an ECoG records database of a Ketamine-Medetomidine anesthetic induction in a non-human primate subject. The MDR-ECoG technique provided records of cortical activity with both high temporal and spatial resolution allied with extensive coverage of the cortical surface. The Permutation Entropy and the Fractal Dimension were employed to evaluate the complexity of the neural time series. It was found that the complexity of cortical activity was relatively constant during awakened conditions. The transition to unconsciousness occurred relatively fast; it required about 30 to 40 seconds for the first remarkable changes to take place. During anesthesia, the complexity assumed considerable variation at local levels and fluctuated apparently without a defined period. The cortex dynamically alternated between high and low complex states on a global scale. This study provides novel evidence of the effects of anesthetics on neural activity and cortical dynamics, contributing to the elucidation of anesthetic mechanisms in terms of circuits, pathways, and global brain functioning.