8/ Microscale to macroscale mechanism A biophysical model simulating the prolonged inhibitory postsynaptic currents of GABAergic anaesthetics at the microscale, reproduces 461/485 (95%) of macroscale empirical features 🤯 Shortening excitation (à la ketamine) also gets >90% ✅

7/ Do conserved dynamics have conserved molecular underpinnings? 🧬 We integrate gene expression from human, macaque & mouse, plus new marmoset genes 🐒🧬 We find a conserved anterior-posterior cortical gradient linking dynamics to genes for excitation & inhibition, including known anesthetic targets

6/ Spatio-temporal isolation 🌐 Anaesthesia desynchronises regions & decouples their dynamical profiles Neural activity fails to persist over time, but it also fails to propagate in space.

5/ We measured intrinsic neural timescales directly ⏱️ In every single species, timescales get shorter under anaesthesia, and regions with the longest timescales lose the most ⚖️ DBS of the centromedian thalamus reverses this: timescales lengthen as the macaque wakes up 🐒⚡

4/ Do any features change in the SAME direction in EVERY contrast & drug & species? 🎯 485 survive (vs ~1 expected by chance!) We consistently find ⬇️ autocorrelation, ⬆️ forecasting error 🔮. Under anaesthesia, information does not persist in neural activity

3/ We compare every feature in every region, awake vs anaesthesia Across 7 anaesthetics, 9 orders of magnitude in scale & ~700M years of evolution 🪱🐟🐁🐒🧑, many features shift the same way in every species. And when centromedian thalamic DBS re-awakens the macaque, they flip back⚡

2/ Anaesthetics work across species: How? Most studies look at just a few features in 1-2 species 🤔 We used Highly Comparative Time-Series Analysis (HCTSA) to extract >6,000 features of neural activity 📈 from fMRI & calcium imaging in human + macaque + marmoset + mouse + zebrafish + c.elegans

Such an incredible feeling, knowing that the European Research Council believes in our work & and has decided to back my vision for the future of integrative neuroscience 🧠 Grateful beyond words to the collaborators & mentors who made this all possible: here's to doing more science together! 🎉

Wonderful cross-species work, comparing unimodal-transmodal information across evolution: the field needs more of this, and it's great to see it out!