Ivory Fu

2 papers in the library · 8 citations · publishing 2024-2026

Papers

Slow and fast cortical cholinergic arousal is reduced in a mouse model of focal seizures with impaired consciousness.

Cell reports December 24, 2024 Lim-Anna Sieu, Shobhit Singla, Jiayang Liu et al. 8 citations

Focal temporal lobe seizures in humans often cause loss of consciousness accompanied by cortical slow waves similar to deep sleep. Previous rat studies under anesthesia suggested that reduced subcortical arousal depresses cortical function, but could not link conscious behavior to physiology. In an awake mouse model, electrically induced hippocampal seizures impaired behavioral responses to sounds, triggered cortical slow waves, and reduced mean high-frequency cortical activity. Behavioral responses depended on cortical acetylcholine release at two timescales: slow state-related decreases correlated with overall impairment, while fast phasic release corresponded to variable spared or impaired responses per stimulus. These results establish a strong link between decreased cortical arousal and impaired consciousness during focal seizures.

DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2024.115012 Full text Cp: neuroscience Grab sensor Acetylcholine Auditory perception +5

Neural mechanisms of awareness of action.

PNAS nexus July 1, 2026 David S Jin, Oumayma Agdali, Taruna Yadav et al.

Awareness of action (AoA)—the conscious awareness of one's own actions—is crucial for daily life, yet its neural basis is poorly understood. By developing a game where participants repeatedly made nearly identical moves while distracted, then reported awareness or unawareness of those moves, the authors compared neural activity between aware and unaware actions. On short timescales, aware actions showed larger neurophysiological signals both before and after movement, including volitional and perceptual event-related potentials, frontal midline theta, alpha/beta desynchronization, and increased blink rates. On longer timescales, a novel positive event-related potential preceded only unaware moves, and behavioral and pupillometric evidence indicated decreased attention and arousal concurrent with AoA loss. Three synergistic neural mechanisms were identified: long-term increases in arousal/attentional state, increased motor volitional signals, and increased sensory perceptual signals.

DOI: 10.1093/pnasnexus/pgag220 Full text Attention Consciousness Event-related potentials Perception +1