Brain dreams and processes words during anesthesia

All in all, the findings indicate that consciousness is not necessarily fully lost during anesthesia, even though the person is no longer reacting to their environment. However, dream-like experiences and thoughts might still float in consciousness. The brain might still register speech and try to decipher words.

Annalotta Scheinin, Roosa E. Kallionpää, Duan Li, Minna Kallioinen, Kaike Kaisti, Jaakko Långsjö, Anu Maksimow, Tero Vahlberg, Katja Valli, George A. Mashour, Antti Revonsuo, Harry Scheinin. Differentiating Drug-related and State-related Effects of Dexmedetomidine and Propofol on the Electroencephalogram. Anesthesiology, 2018; 129 (1): 22 DOI: 10.1097/ALN.0000000000002192