Journal of neurosurgical anesthesiology
June 15, 2026
Yi Liang, Wanning Yang, Xinxin Wang et al.
In patients with prolonged disorders of consciousness, a one-hour intravenous infusion of esketamine (0.3 mg/kg/h) altered brain activity as measured by electroencephalography. The drug suppressed delta wave power while increasing beta and gamma wave power across the whole brain, and increased alpha wave power specifically in patients diagnosed as vegetative state/unresponsive wakefulness syndrome. Signal complexity, measured by Lempel-Ziv complexity, increased in the parietal and occipital brain regions. In minimally conscious patients, this complexity increase persisted for 30 minutes after the infusion stopped, while changes were transient in vegetative state patients. However, these neurophysiological changes were not accompanied by any improvements in behavioral responsiveness as assessed by the Coma Recovery Scale-Revised.
Nature communications
June 5, 2023
Ang Li, Haiyang Liu, Xu Lei et al.
Consciousness is linked to how neural activity shifts along a unimodal-transmodal cortical axis, a simple signature that is abnormally elevated under psychedelics and in psychosis. This hierarchical dynamic reflects changes in global brain integration and connectome diversity. Quasi-periodic patterns show hierarchical heterogeneity as spatiotemporally propagating waves tied to arousal, a pattern also seen in macaques. The spatial distribution of the principal cortical gradient aligns with genetic transcription of the histaminergic system and functional connectome mapping of the tuberomammillary nucleus, which promotes wakefulness. Combining behavioral, neuroimaging, electrophysiological, and transcriptomic evidence, the authors propose that global consciousness is supported by efficient hierarchical processing along a low-dimensional macroscale gradient.
Behavioural Brain Research
November 1, 2021
Haiyang Liu, Ke-Hui Hu, Yingjie Peng et al.
During dexmedetomidine-induced sedation, the brain's functional networks become more fragmented and dynamic, with increased switching rates and decreased integration compared to wakefulness; these changes largely reverse upon recovery of consciousness. The study tracked dynamic network reconfiguration using fMRI data from 21 healthy subjects and multilayer network analysis, comparing wakefulness, sedation, and recovery states. The findings suggest that altered states of consciousness involve a whole-brain pattern of higher modular dynamics and more fragmented communication, offering insights into the neural basis of consciousness and potential clinical relevance for disorders of consciousness.