Super-detailed map of brain cells that keep us awake could improve our understanding of consciousness

Scientists have charted a comprehensive map of the brain cells responsible for keeping us awake. In doing so, they aim to better understand the mechanisms that enable human consciousness and to improve treatments for people in comas and vegetative states.

"It's a beautiful study," said Dr. Nicholas Schiff, a professor of neurology and neuroscience at Weill Cornell Medicine who was not involved in the new research. "It's a map of everything." 

Schiff, who has collaborated with some of the study's authors in the past, hopes the new map can serve as a template for scientists to go back and look at patients with altered states of consciousness. Such work could help clarify exactly how this wakefulness network can be disrupted and what's required to get it back online. It's a tool that could help scientists pinpoint which brain activity is "necessary and sufficient" to keep someone awake and aware, Schiff told Live Science.

The new study was published Wednesday (May 1) in the journal Science Translational Medicine. 

Related: What happens in our brains when we 'hear' our own thoughts? 

Mapping consciousness

Human consciousness arises from a delicate dance between the wrinkled surface of the brain, known as the cerebral cortex, and deeper "subcortical" structures beneath it. Circuits in the cortex direct our attention and process information from the world around us, while the subcortical networks plug into these circuits from below, essentially keeping them active. 

"It sends the signals that activate and stimulate the entire rest of the brain," said first author Dr. Brian Edlow, co-director of Mass General NeuroScience and director of the Laboratory for NeuroImaging of Coma and Consciousness.