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General anaesthesia decreases the uniqueness of brain functional connectivity across individuals and species

Author

Listed:
  • Andrea I. Luppi

    (McGill University
    University of Cambridge)

  • Daniel Golkowski

    (Technical University of Munich)

  • Andreas Ranft

    (Technical University of Munich)

  • Rudiger Ilg

    (Technical University of Munich
    Department of Neurology)

  • Denis Jordan

    (Technical University of Munich)

  • Danilo Bzdok

    (McGill University
    Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute)

  • Adrian M. Owen

    (Western University)

  • Lorina Naci

    (Trinity College Dublin)

  • Emmanuel A. Stamatakis

    (University of Cambridge)

  • Enrico Amico

    (University of Birmingham
    University of Birmingham
    University of Birmingham)

  • Bratislav Misic

    (McGill University)

Abstract

The human brain is characterized by idiosyncratic patterns of spontaneous thought, rendering each brain uniquely identifiable from its neural activity. However, deep general anaesthesia suppresses subjective experience. Does it also suppress what makes each brain unique? Here we used functional MRI scans acquired under the effects of the general anaesthetics sevoflurane and propofol to determine whether anaesthetic-induced unconsciousness diminishes the uniqueness of the human brain, both with respect to the brains of other individuals and the brains of another species. Using functional connectivity, we report that under anaesthesia individual brains become less self-similar and less distinguishable from each other. Loss of distinctiveness is highly organized: it co-localizes with the archetypal sensory–association axis, correlating with genetic and morphometric markers of phylogenetic differences between humans and other primates. This effect is more evident at greater anaesthetic depths, reproducible across sevoflurane and propofol and reversed upon recovery. Providing convergent evidence, we show that anaesthesia shifts the functional connectivity of the human brain closer to the functional connectivity of the macaque brain in a low-dimensional space. Finally, anaesthesia diminishes the match between spontaneous brain activity and cognitive brain patterns aggregated from the Neurosynth meta-analytic engine. Collectively, the present results reveal that anaesthetized human brains are not only less distinguishable from each other, but also less distinguishable from the brains of other primates, with specifically human-expanded regions being the most affected by anaesthesia.

Suggested Citation

  • Andrea I. Luppi & Daniel Golkowski & Andreas Ranft & Rudiger Ilg & Denis Jordan & Danilo Bzdok & Adrian M. Owen & Lorina Naci & Emmanuel A. Stamatakis & Enrico Amico & Bratislav Misic, 2025. "General anaesthesia decreases the uniqueness of brain functional connectivity across individuals and species," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 9(5), pages 987-1004, May.
  • Handle: RePEc:nat:nathum:v:9:y:2025:i:5:d:10.1038_s41562-025-02121-9
    DOI: 10.1038/s41562-025-02121-9
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