Propofol is supposed to shut down brain activity during major surgery.
Over 350 million patients receive it yearly, yet University of Michigan data shook medicine.
When neuroscientist George Mashour analyzed cortical EEG readouts in Ann Arbor, his team discovered firing rates matched normal wakefulness. If John Snow pioneered anesthesia dosing in 1847, modern clinicians across the United States still ask what happens to the brain during anesthesia when communication networks vanish. In 2026, researchers are finally mapping this illusion.
Every day, 350 million surgical patients are plunged into unconsciousness using general anesthesia. But in 2013, neuroscientists uncovered a terrifying paradox: cortical neurons do not shut down under propofol—they fire at identical rates to a waking mind. From the operating theaters of Ann Arbor to breakthrough trials in 2026, George Mashour investigated why subjective experience vanishes while the brain keeps humming.
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