• Dinesh Pal, Brian H Silverstein, Heonsoo Lee, and George A Mashour.
• From the Department of Anesthesiology (D.P., H.L., G.A.M.), Center for Consciousness Science (D.P., B.H.S., G.A.M.), and Neuroscience Graduate Program (G.A.M.), University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
• Anesthesiology. 2016 Nov 1; 125 (5): 929-942.

BackgroundSignificant advances have been made in our understanding of subcortical processes related to anesthetic- and sleep-induced unconsciousness, but the associated changes in cortical connectivity and cortical neurochemistry have yet to be fully clarified.MethodsMale Sprague-Dawley rats were instrumented for simultaneous measurement of cortical acetylcholine and electroencephalographic indices of corticocortical connectivity-coherence and symbolic transfer entropy-before, during, and after general anesthesia (propofol, n = 11; sevoflurane, n = 13). In another group of rats (n = 7), these electroencephalographic indices were analyzed during wakefulness, slow wave sleep (SWS), and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep.ResultsCompared to wakefulness, anesthetic-induced unconsciousness was characterized by a significant decrease in cortical acetylcholine that recovered to preanesthesia levels during recovery wakefulness. Corticocortical coherence and frontal-parietal symbolic transfer entropy in high γ band (85 to 155 Hz) were decreased during anesthetic-induced unconsciousness and returned to preanesthesia levels during recovery wakefulness. Sleep-wake states showed a state-dependent change in coherence and transfer entropy in high γ bandwidth, which correlated with behavioral arousal: high during wakefulness, low during SWS, and lowest during REM sleep. By contrast, frontal-parietal θ connectivity during sleep-wake states was not correlated with behavioral arousal but showed an association with well-established changes in cortical acetylcholine: high during wakefulness and REM sleep and low during SWS.ConclusionsCorticocortical coherence and frontal-parietal connectivity in high γ bandwidth correlates with behavioral arousal and is not mediated by cholinergic mechanisms, while θ connectivity correlates with cortical acetylcholine levels.

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