Waikato Cortical Modelling Group

Introduction

Since late 1997, our Waikato Group has been modelling the abrupt change in brain state that occurs when a patient falls into anaesthetic unconciousness. We believe that there is strong evidence that the sudden awake → asleep switchover is closely analogous to a physical phase transition, rather like water freezing to form ice.

Our aim is to develop a physics-based model to help us better understand the nature of anaesthetic unconsciousness. With this greater understanding comes the possibility of improved patient safety -one seeks to reduce the nightmarish risk of inadequate anaesthesia in which the patient is paralyzed yet still conscious.

We are also modelling the cortical processes that underlie the 90-minute cycles of natural sleep.  We are particularly interested in the abrupt transition between deep slow-wave sleep (SWS) and rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep, and the possible implications that the slow, correlated fluctuations in brain voltage might have for memory, learning and erasure.