FIGURE 3.

Chaotic attractors provide a sensitive measure of levels of consciousness in subjects exposed to an anesthetic. EEG signals were recorded from frontal cortex and processed as previously described (Eagleman et al., 2018b). Attractor plots produce spherical clouds in awake subjects. Loss of consciousness (LOC) is associated with a flattening of the attractor cloud. A further flattening is seen at surgical planes of anesthesia, with a return to a more spherical shape upon recovery, following removal of the anesthetic. Grids indicate best fit boundaries for each 3-D matrix. Unpublished data from Eagleman and MacIver.