Differential engagement of thalamic nuclei orchestrates consciousness states across anesthesia, sleep, and disorders of consciousness
Fa Lu, Juan Wang, Xuewei Qin, Xuanling Chen, Taotao Liu, Xiaoli Li, Xiangyang Guo, Yao Lan, Zhenhu Liang · 2025
Read Differential engagement of thalamic nuclei orchestrates consciousness states across anesthesia, sleep, and disorders of consciousness by Fa Lu, Juan Wang, Xuewei Qin, Xuanling Chen, Taotao Liu, Xiaoli Li, Xiangyang Guo, Yao Lan, Zhenhu Liang (2025) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-12715259.txt.
Description
Awareness fades under anesthesia, in sleep, and in coma-like disorders. The thalamus, the brain's relay hub, is suspected of conducting the change. Fa Lu and co-authors pool brain scans across two anesthetic drugs, two depths of disorder, and natural sleep stages. They track how thalamic sub-regions connect to the cortex, and how their local activity fluctuates.
Five nuclei changed with state in every condition, the higher-order ones most consistently. Disorders of consciousness showed the widest disconnections, while sleep leaned on specific relay nuclei. The link between local activity and connectivity shifted with awareness, sketching a thalamic score that future therapies might learn to play.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Fa Lu, Juan Wang, Xuewei Qin, Xuanling Chen, Taotao Liu, Xiaoli Li, Xiangyang Guo, Yao Lan, Zhenhu Liang |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2025 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 74 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |