Responsiveness Variability During Anaesthesia and Differences in Brain Structure

Patients who experienced accidental awareness under anesthesia tended to have larger volumes of frontal gray matter and stronger frontoparietal brain connections, potentially supporting continued conscious experience despite general anesthesia. I.e., larger frontal grey matter + stronger frontoparietal (functional) connections are associated with better preserved responsiveness, even when consciousness is suppressed (to some degree) by anaesthesia.