Israeli researchers have located an area in laboratory rats’ brains that controls their consciousness, a finding that might herald new treatments for various states of loss of consciousness. Loss of response to painful stimuli and loss of consciousness are the most striking characteristics of surgical an aesthesia and an aesthesia-like states, such as concussion, reversible coma and syncope. These states also exhibit behavioral suppression, loss of muscle tone and depressed brain metabolism. It has been widely presumed that this constellation of dramatic functional changes reflects widely distributed suppression of neuronal activity in the brain due to dispersed drug action or to global oxygen or nutrient starvation. However, a Hebrew University of Jerusalem research team, led by Professor Marshall Devor, revealed ‘a radically different architecture,’ said the university in a statement on Monday. ‘A small group of neurons near the base of the brain … has executive control over the alert status of the entire cerebrum and spinal cord, and can generate loss of pain sensation, postural collapse and loss of consciousness through specific neural circuitry,’ said the statement. […]