INCREASE OF INTRACRANIAL EEG ALPHA PEAK FREQUENCY AS A RESPONSE TO THE OWN-NAME STIMULUS DURING GENERAL ANESTHESIA IN ELEVEN PATIENTS WITH BRAIN TUMORS

Abstract

The few existing studies demonstrated that hearing one’s name could have an arousal or alertness impact during unconsciousness. At the same time, the brain areas involved in this reactivity remained unknown. In this study, we attempted to register a response from two brain areas, the mesencephalon and cerebral cortex, in eleven patients who underwent posterior third ventricle or posterior fossa tumor removals under general anesthesia. We used 2 deep electrodes and 16 scalp electrodes and a registered electroencephalogram (EEG) for 2 states: the resting state, and stimulation state (which included sounds of one’s name, another name, and noise, presented in random order). Our results indicated that patients under general anesthesia could respond to their names (demonstrated by accelerated alpha-peak frequency), compared to other sounds and the resting state EEG, which was registered both on the cerebral and mesencephalon levels, indicating activated brain systems.