New Findings: Identification Of Key Facilities Networks In The Brain That Play A Role In Awareness

JAKARTA - A question that has long surfaced regarding which part of the brain helps produce feelings of 'building' has finally been answered. This is thanks to a very detailed new brain image. The researchers used high-resolution brain scans that allow them to see brain relationships at the'submillimeter' level, meaning up to 3/100 inches which is very small.

The images are then used to map the neural network from previous pathways that have never been seen in the brain, called the 'default generation arousal network' or dAAN, which they now theory as a core region that helps humans maintain maintained consciousness.

In recent years, neuroscientists studying awareness have divided this exciting mystery into how the human brain has self-awareness into two sub-categories: 'arousal' (awareness) and 'awareness' (life subjective experience).

The researchers hope that their work exploring the dAAN pathway will help develop new treatments for patients with comas, or other conditions that depend on maintained consciousness.

"Our goal is to map critical human brain tissue for awareness," said lead author Dr. Brian Edlow. This is to provide better tools to clinicalists to detect, predict, and promote recovery of consciousness in patients with severe brain injuries.

Her colleague, Dr. Hannah Kinney, who is also a senior author of this new study, added that 'diversity of neurological disorders' related to changes in consciousness can also benefit from this new study.

Using a technique called 'ex vivo magnetic resonance imaging' (MRI), a slower form of MRI scanning performed on a tissue that is dead or surgically lifted, researchers can take detailed images of the dAAN pathways associated with consciousness.

Based on their mapping work, the researchers believe that the area's ventral tegmental, or VTA, in the middle brain will be a key area for care that helps maintain awareness.

Dr. Edlow hopes to continue to provide more detailed neural maps in an effort to help patients who have experienced loss of consciousness. We envision that this connectivity map will allow us to compile, one individual after another, a necessary and sufficient combination of connections to recover consciousness," he said.