Doctor Lee Minji (Department of Artificial Intelligence) and Professor Lee Seong-Whan (Department of Artificial Intelligence) have developed new neurotechnology for facilitating the quantification of the level of human consciousness. The thesis, “Quantifying Arousal and Awareness in Altered States of Consciousness using Interpretable Deep Learning,” has been published in the internationally prestigious scientific journal Nature Communications.

Quantifying consciousness is an instrumental feat in neuroscience, as it is employed in a vast array of practices such as the measurement of anesthesia, the treatment of sleep disorder patients, and the diagnosis of consciousness disorder patients. Dr. Lee and Professor Lee’s breakthrough utilizes a new measurement index deemed as Explainable Consciousness Indicator (ECI) that compensates the defects of the precedented index, Perturbational Complexity Index (PCI), by being able to quantify both awareness and arousal. The new discovery both greatly curtails the measurement time and expands the scope of specific quantification to people under the influence of anesthesia or vegetative patients.

“This thesis would mark a global precedent in technology that quantifies consciousness in both awareness and arousal,” commented Professor Lee, “It would be applicable in multivarious areas such as everyday sleep, anesthesia, and diseases.”