The way sensory prediction changes under anesthesia could reveal how conscious cognition works

Our brains constantly work to make predictions about what’s going on around us, for instance to ensure that we can attend to and consider the unexpected. A new study examines how this works during consciousness and also breaks down under general anesthesia. The results add evidence for the idea that conscious thought requires synchronized communication—mediated by brain rhythms in specific frequency bands—between basic sensory and higher-order cognitive regions of the brain…