Decoded: Which brain region helps us stay conscious?
New York, June 22: Scientists, including one of Indian-origin, have found that a brain region -- associated with cognitive behaviours, decision making, and moderating social behaviour -- determines our overall level of consciousness.
The study, conducted on rats, provided evidence that the prefrontal cortex has a switchboard-like relationship with other areas of the brain, helping to ignite awareness of visual information.
"The study suggests that the prefrontal cortex has the potential to play a role in coordinating the level of consciousness," said George Mashour from the University of Michigan.
The results could also be explored for applications in people with disorders of consciousness, such as coma or vegetative states.
"It's very difficult and dangerous to directly intervene at the level of arousal centres in the brainstem because of its location, small size, and nearby vital functions.
"Maybe the prefrontal cortex is an accessible gateway to some of those other arousal systems that could be leveraged in a clinical setting outside of anesthesia," he said.
In the study, published in the journal Current Biology, the team gave anesthetised rats with a common anesthetic used in humans and exposed their prefrontal and parietal lobe -- a brain region associated with processing sensory information and interpreting visual information -- to drugs that ramped up the effect of neurotransmitters and measured their brain activity and behaviour.
To see what had the causal power to take an unconscious brain receiving ongoing anesthesia and wake it up, the team targeted two neurotransmitters that are associated with wakefulness: acetylcholine and norepinephrine, said Dinesh Pal, from the varsity.
The findings showed that when exposed to an acetylcholine-receptor activator, the rats' brain waves -- normally slow during sleep and anesthesia -- sped up.
But rats were able to start behaving as though they were awake only with prefrontal cortex stimulation, all while continuing to receive the same level of anesthesia that is used clinically for surgery in humans.
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England sticking with Key, McCullum and Stokes despite Ashes humbling
London (AP): England is not sacking anybody following the 4-1 Ashes loss in Australia.
A review of the tour by the England and Wales Cricket Board, announced within hours of the final match in January, was concluded on Monday. Firing people would “be the easy thing to do,” ECB chief executive Richard Gould said but he insisted, "This is not the time to throw everything out."
Managing director Rob Key, coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes kept their jobs after the best England side to go to Australia in 14 years lost the Ashes in 11 days with two games to spare.
“Moving people on can sometimes be the easy thing to do. That's not the route that we're going to take,” Gould said. “I've seen the driving ambition and determination that we're lucky enough to have within our leadership group to take the lessons from the Ashes and move forward.”
Gould previously was the chief executive of Bristol City soccer club and said the ECB would not follow the same route as soccer's hire-and-fire culture.
“Cricket is a very unique sport in that it takes a team of leadership ... it's not like football where there's a single point of failure or success with a manager," he said. He added the ECB would not “select or deselect management based on a popularity campaign.”
The main criticisms of England's tour were poor preparation, player misbehavior, and selection mistakes.
At a press conference at Lord's, Gould and Key said McCullum and Stokes have not had a “bust up,” they did not want McCullum to “completely change” but “to evolve,” the behavior of some players was “unprofessional,” there will be more consequences for underperforming, and a commitment to “better long-term planning” ahead of major test series.
Some changes were already implemented for the Twenty20 World Cup, where England reached the semifinals. Gould implied that performance saved McCullum.
Key acknowledged that England supporters would be disappointed to see the management team go unpunished.
“I know people want punishment and that people then should be sacked for that,” Key said. “That doesn't mean we don't feel like we've gone through some serious pain: Brendon, myself, Ben. It's been as tough a time as I think I've had.”
