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

Hippocampal–Auditory Activation During Music Listening in Anesthetized States

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.

Xiangbin Teng¹ (), Hao Zhu², Chen Yao³, Patrick Chun Man Wong²⁵, Xing Tian⁴; ¹Department of Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong SAR, China, ²Brain and Mind Institute, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong SAR, China, ³Department of Neurosurgery, Shenzhen Second People’s Hospital (The First Affiliated Hospital of Shenzhen University), Shenzhen, Guangdong, China, ⁴Neural and Cognitive Sciences, NYU Shanghai, Shanghai, China, ⁵Department of Linguistics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong SAR, China

Can the human brain still differentiate meaningful auditory stimuli during anesthesia—a state traditionally regarded as incapable of supporting high-level cognition? We explored this question by examining hippocampal and auditory cortical responses to music in patients undergoing intracranial monitoring for epilepsy surgery under propofol-induced anesthesia. Prior to surgery, each patient selected several familiar and favorite songs, along with unfamiliar but stylistically matched control pieces. During electrode implantation, local field potentials were recorded from hippocampal and superior temporal regions as patients passively heard these musical excerpts. Preliminary analyses (5 of 15 patients) revealed preserved auditory responses in the superior temporal gyrus and potential indications of enhanced ultra-slow (0.3–0.7 Hz) oscillatory activity in the hippocampus when patients heard familiar or self-selected music. These preliminary patterns—reminiscent of oscillations linked to musical and linguistic phrase processing—may suggest that memory-related networks remain partly active even in anesthetized states. However, further analyses are underway to validate these effects and to determine their reliability across participants and regions. If confirmed, such findings could support a model in which residual auditory–hippocampal coupling encodes temporal structure and familiarity in the absence of awareness, offering new insights into brain states during anesthesia and potential mechanisms underlying music-evoked “awakening” phenomena in coma or minimally conscious patients.

Topic Area: LONG-TERM MEMORY: Episodic