# Cortical-Subcortical Network Dynamics of Anesthesia and Consciousness

> **NIH NIH R01** · UT SOUTHWESTERN MEDICAL CENTER · 2022 · $272,086

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
General anesthesia (GA) is a pharmacologically-induced state of unresponsiveness and unconsciousness which
millions of people experience every year. Despite its ubiquity, a clear and consistent picture of the brain circuits
mediating consciousness and responsiveness has not emerged. Assertions from non-invasive human studies
(i.e. EEG and brain imaging), modeling and animal studies implicate key cortical and subcortical brain areas
(including cortex, thalamus, and basal ganglia (BG)) during anesthesia. However, studies to date are limited by
the lack of direct recordings in humans from both cortical and subcortical regions with sufficient spatial, temporal,
and spectral resolution during pharmacologically-induced anesthesia. Our overall hypothesis is that the
mesocircuit model of consciousness, which was original proposed to characterize recovery after brain injury, can
be generalized to understand mechanisms of consciousness more broadly. The current research proposal
focuses on experimentally probing the mesocircuit in neurosurgical patients, taking advantage of differences in
patient populations with respect to basal ganglia disease (e.g., Parkinson disease [PD] vs essential tremor [ET]),
the ability to synchronously acquire high resolution BG and cortical neurophysiology, and the opportunity to
modulate the circuit in a targeted fashion with deep brain stimulation (DBS) to interrogate brain-behavior
relationships. We pursue three specific aims: Aim 1: To demonstrate that patients with underlying basal ganglia
pathology are more sensitive to propofol than other patients. Specifically, we will use target-controlled infusion
of propofol to characterize pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic parameters in patients with PD and ET to gain
insights into the potential role of BG circuitry in regulating consciousness, bearing on our more generalized model
of mesocircuit mediation of consciousness. Aim 2: To correlate temporal evolution of basal ganglia-frontoparietal
cortical circuit dynamics with behavioral correlates of induction and emergence from propofol anesthesia. We
will use high spatial, temporal, and spectral resolution recordings in human subjects to provide direct evidence
of circuit function, temporal evolution, causal circuit flow, and brain-behavior correlates. Aim 3: To evaluate the
effects of targeted mesocircuit DBS (including both globus pallidus internus and externus) on propofol induced
loss and recovery of consciousness and responsiveness. The research is innovative in its use of natural
variations in neurological disease and concurrent invasive recording and stimulation in humans with a
mechanistic and causal study design. The proposed research is significant because it will demonstrate a complex
interplay of cortical and subcortical networks with partially separable effects of anesthesia, contrary to the most
common clinical approach of measuring a single, continuously scaled metric for depth of anesthesia. Th...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10320052
- **Project number:** 5R01GM135420-04
- **Recipient organization:** UT SOUTHWESTERN MEDICAL CENTER
- **Principal Investigator:** NADER POURATIAN
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $272,086
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2020-04-01 → 2024-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10320052

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10320052, Cortical-Subcortical Network Dynamics of Anesthesia and Consciousness (5R01GM135420-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10320052. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*