Schedule of Events | Search Abstracts | Invited Symposia | Symposia | Poster Sessions | Data Blitz

Postdoctorial Fellowship Award Winner 

Auditory Network Integration and Neural Representations Collapse Under General Anesthesia: Evidence from Intracranial EEG and Self-Supervised Learning

Poster Session E - Monday, March 9, 2026, 2:30 – 4:30 pm PDT, Fairview/Kitsilano Ballroom
Also presenting in Data Blitz Session 3 - Saturday, March 7, 2026, 10:30 am – 12:00 pm PST, Salon E.

Hao Zhu¹, Chen Yao⁵, Zhili Han⁶, Patrick C.M. Wong^1,2,5, Xing Tian³, Xiangbin Teng^1,2; ¹Brain and Mind Institute, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong SAR, China, ²Department of Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong SAR, China, ³NYU-ECNU Institute of Brain and Cognitive Science at NYU Shanghai, Shanghai, China, ⁴Stanley Ho Professorship in Cognitive Neuroscience and Department of Linguistics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong SAR, China, ⁵Department of Neurosurgery, Shenzhen Second People’s Hospital, The First Affiliated Hospital of Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China, ⁶NingboTech University, Ningbo, China

Auditory entrainment—the synchronization of neural dynamics with semi-rhythmic sound—is a fundamental mechanism for perceiving and predicting temporal patterns in speech and music. General anesthesia provides a powerful model for investigating how this sensory processing relates to consciousness, yet the precise mechanisms of disruption remain unclear. We hypothesized that propofol-induced unresponsiveness reflects a selective disruption of higher-order auditory areas (dorsal auditory-motor stream), leading to a collapse of large-scale network integration and information representation. We tested this using stereoelectroencephalography (sEEG) in thirteen drug-resistant epileptic patients during a rhythmic auditory paradigm in both awake and anesthetized states. We found that during the awake state, auditory processing engaged a widespread, spatially organized network radiating from the primary auditory cortex. Under anesthesia, this network collapsed into focal activity, and this spatial organization was significantly attenuated. Furthermore, neural activity in the awake state propagated in an organized anterior-posterior direction, which was abolished under anesthesia, indicating a failure of large-scale communication. To assess the functional consequence, we trained CEBRA, a self-supervised learning algorithm, using high-dimensional sEEG neural signals and stimulus envelopes. The decoding performance was high in the awake state (R2=0.85) but failed catastrophically under anesthesia (R2=-0.18). These results reveal a cascade of neural failure: anesthesia fragments the auditory network, dismantles the information flow in time, and ultimately erases the neural representation of the external world. These findings provide a mechanistic account of how sensory representations collapse during unconsciousness, offering new insights into the fundamental network dynamics required to support conscious perception.

Topic Area: EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Monitoring & inhibitory control