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Brain imaging research reveals connections critical to human consciousness
Last reviewed: 02.07.2025
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In a paper titled, "Multimodal MRI reveals brainstem connections that support wakefulness in human consciousness," published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, a team of researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital and Children's Hospital Boston created a connectivity map of a brain network they believe is critical to human consciousness.
The study involved high-resolution scans that allowed the researchers to visualize brain connections with submillimeter spatial resolution. This technical advance allowed them to identify previously unnoticed pathways connecting the brainstem, thalamus, hypothalamus, basal forebrain, and cerebral cortex.
Together, these pathways form the "default ascending activation network" that maintains wakefulness at rest in conscious humans. The concept of the "default" network is based on the idea that certain networks in the brain are most functionally active when the brain is at rest, while other networks are more active when the brain is performing goal-directed tasks.
To investigate the functional properties of this default brain network, the researchers analyzed 7 Tesla resting-state functional MRI data from the Human Connectome Project. These analyses revealed functional connections between the subcortical default ascending activation network and the cortical default network that mediates self-awareness at rest.
Complementary structural and functional connectivity maps provide a neuroanatomical basis for the integration of wakefulness and awareness in human consciousness. The researchers have published fMRI data, brain mapping techniques, and a new Harvard Atlas of the Ascending Activation Network to support future efforts to map the connectivity of human consciousness.
"Our goal was to map the human brain network that is critical for consciousness and provide clinicians with better tools to detect, predict, and promote recovery of consciousness in patients with severe traumatic brain injury," explains lead author Dr. Brian Edlow, co-director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Neuroscience Center, associate director of the Center for Neurotechnology and Neurorestoration (CNTR) at Massachusetts General Hospital, associate professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School, and a 2023-2028 Chen Research Fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Dr. Edlow explains: "Our connectivity results suggest that stimulation of the dopaminergic pathways of the ventral tegmental area has the potential to help patients emerge from coma, as this hub is connected to many brain regions that are critical for consciousness."
Senior author Dr. Hannah Kinney, professor emeritus at Children's Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School, adds that "the human brain connections we identified can be used as a roadmap to better understand a wide range of neurological disorders associated with altered consciousness, from coma to seizures and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)."
The authors are currently conducting clinical trials to stimulate the default ascending activating network in patients with coma following traumatic brain injury in order to reactivate the network and restore consciousness.