Consciousness is partly preserved during general anaesthesia

(University of Turku) Finnish researchers have gained new information on brain activity during general anaesthesia by recording changes in the electrical activity of the brain. They discovered that changes in electroencephalogram correlated with the loss of consciousness itself and also by the non-specific effects of the drugs. Nearly all participants recalled dreaming during unresponsiveness and, somewhat surprisingly, words presented during anaesthesia were still processed in the brain even though the participants were unable to recall them later.
Source: EurekAlert! - Social and Behavioral Science - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Source Type: news