Anesthesiologists discover a third state of consciousness
Neurosciences study human behavior from cold and impersonal data, relatively easy to analyze quantitatively. However, there is a side of psychology that can not be measured directly: the subjective states of consciousness . Perhaps that is why scientists have difficulty in constructing a definition of what consciousness is, what its nature is and exactly what it is based on.
Hence, the discoveries that are made about the functioning of the brain make the distinction between two states of subjectivity ("conscious" and "unconscious") wobble. Currently there are indications that there could be a third state of consciousness that has been baptized as dysanaesthesia (Disanesthesia)
Partial awareness in the operating room
The discovery of this possible third state of consciousness is related to the usual practice of anesthesiologists: sleeping people.
The experiment consisted of asking people apparently unconscious from the effect of general anesthesia to move the fingers of a hand that had been isolated from the rest of the body by a tourniquet while operating them. Curiously, almost two quarters of the anesthetized people obeyed the order as requested , despite the fact that according to the electronic monitoring systems they must be totally asleep. On the other hand, the doses of anesthesia supplied were normal, which would have been given in any normal operation.
None of the people who participated in the experiment moved their hand for anything other than following the orders given to them or seemed to respond in any way to the surgery they were undergoing. Also, once you wake up, only two of them vaguely remembered moving their hands , and none remembered anything about the surgery or claimed to have felt pain.
The third state of consciousness seems to be based on something similar to the selective attention .
Disanesthesia, or how to expand the repertoire of mental states
The fact that some patients are able to move a part of their body in response to orders could be taken as a sign of consciousness in the operating room, something that can be solved by increasing the dose of anesthesia. However, some anesthesiologists such as Dr. Jaideep Pandit believe that these patients are in a third state of consciousness that is not comparable to what you experience when reading these lines or to what occurs when you sleep without dreams.
This could be so because during this "disanesthesia" there is some automatic process that is responsible for discerning what are orders directed towards the sleeper of what are not , and therefore makes it possible to react only in some cases and not in others (although these others have to do with metal instruments cutting skin and meat).
A third state of consciousness is also an uncomfortable idea
This third state of consciousness would be, therefore, only partial. However, this experiment also highlights the technology currently used to monitor the patient's awareness of the operating room. Apparently, the markers that are monitored so far have a limited predictive power, and that means that during the operation under general anesthesia many things may be happening in the patient's consciousness that are not registered by the machines and that remain in the private domain of the patient. own subjectivity, even though memories are not saved later.
After all, this experiment does not stop being a reminder that it is difficult to speak of conscience when you do not really know what it is. Can you define something that is entirely subjective? What happens if there are types of consciousness that can not be distinguished by machines? Disanesthesia may be a third state of consciousness, but it may also head a long list of mental states that have yet to be discovered.
Bibliographic references:
- Pandit, J. J. (2013). Isolated forearm - or isolated brain? Interpreting responses during anaesthesia - or 'dysanaesthesia'. Anaesthesia, 68 (10), pp. 995 - 1000.
- Russell I. F. (2013). The ability of bispectral index to detect intra-operative wakefulness during isoflurane / air anesthesia, compared with the isolated forearm technique. Anaesthesia, 68 (10): 1010-1020.
