Jad Abumrad

It helps to zoom in on the brain and look at a smaller number of neurons, which is what he did.

Now check this out.

We conducted this study where we measured brain activity in individual neurons.

They got some patients, planted these tiny little electrodes deep into their brains so they could hear the individual neurons.

So let's imagine that we zoom in to like tens to hundreds of neurons firing.

And he says when they give that patient propofol, an anesthetic, what we notice is that right at the point of loss of consciousness, sure enough, they see those big slow waves sweeping through.

And just like in Fenway, when the wave hits you, you have to stop your conversation.

But what that wave is really doing is it's only allowing each little cluster of neurons to talk once in a while.

They can only fire once.

at a particular moment in this slow oscillation.

Like, you know how the wave goes up and down, up and down, or round and round and round if you're on Fenway?

It's only at this moment, say, that one group gets to talk.

The problem is his buddy, he can only talk at this moment.

And the neurons next door, they can only talk at this moment.

Next group, same deal.

Everybody gets a turn to talk, but they can't talk to each other because they're on slightly different schedules.

When they're talking, the others can't listen.

So there's still a lot of talking going on, but consciousness seems to be the brain talking and listening to itself.

So when that slow wave rolls around, the neurons can't all fire at the same time and talk to one another.

And in that state, it would be impossible to be conscious.