After anæsthesia, “primitive” consciousness awakens first

Our con­fused first wak­ing mo­ments af­ter gen­er­al an­æs­the­sia rep­re­sent a ru­di­men­ta­ry form of consciousness that arises from an­cient brain struc­tures, new re­search con­cludes.  The sci­en­tists in­volved de­scribed this mud­dled men­tal state as a “prim­i­tive” con­scious­ness based on deep brain struc­tures that hu­mans pos­sess in com­mon with many an­i­mals.