Anesthesiology
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Observational Study
Neurophysiologic Complexity in Children Increases with Developmental Age and Is Reduced by General Anesthesia.
Neurophysiologic complexity in the cortex has been shown to reflect changes in the level of consciousness in adults but remains incompletely understood in the developing brain. This study aimed to address changes in cortical complexity related to age and anesthetic state transitions. This study tested the hypotheses that cortical complexity would (1) increase with developmental age and (2) decrease during general anesthesia. ⋯ Cortical complexity increased with developmental age and decreased during general anesthesia. This association remained significant when controlling for spectral changes during anesthetic-induced perturbations in consciousness but not with developmental age.