Automatic Networking: Brain systems charge up in unconscious monkeys

Anesthetized monkeys may be dead to the world, but their brains remain surprisingly lively. Organized patterns of activity continually course through neural networks that during waking life control the animals’ eye movements and other critical functions, a new brain-scan investigation finds.

Unconscious monkeys also display a type of spontaneous brain activity that until now had been observed only in people at rest, say neuroscientist Marcus E.