Walling-Hicks Brainwaves was created to supplement an article in Anesthesiology. (Walling PT, Hicks KN: Nonlinear Changes in Brain Dynamics during Emergence from Sevoflurane Anesthesia: Preliminary Exploration Utilizing New Software. Anesthesiology 2006:105: pp927-935.

In addition to supplying extra background information used in the study, access to the ”EEGo“ software has been provided. Readers may wish to familiarize themselves with the working of the software before embarking on a study of their own.

We emphasize that ”EEGo“ is an investigational tool only and may on no account be used as a basis for clinical decision making at the present time.

Links to prior studies are located in the biography section. A poster from the ”Towards a Science of Consciousness“ meeting, Tucson 2004, is also included.

When I look at my own finger, my brain processes only the electromagnetic energy from 400-700 nanometers, the visible light spectrum. At the retina, my ”finger“ is digitized into millions of staccato nerve impulses.

It reappears as a virtual or intangible object in my perceptual space, apparently outside of my head, and correctly attached to my hand just like my real finger in physical space.

My brain has performed a ”biopsy“ of the light reflected from my physical finger and projected it back to the source.

I am the percipient, my finger is the percept. Where is the perception? Inside my skull where the neurons are, or outside my head where I perceive it to be?

We believe the answer is neither, that perceptual space is different and separate from physical space, and that the neuro-dynamical correlates of the conscious mind are more closely allied to a sort of mathematical space called Hyperspace (Multidimensional Phase Space).

Dynamics are the rules under which a system operates, the phase space is the arena where the dynamics unfold and may be observed. A neuro-dynamical correlate of consciousness may be more revealing than any proposed neuro-anatomical correlate.

The way in which billions of neurons produce consciousness is one of the most baffling puzzles known to man. Anesthesiologists are uniquely privileged to observe the disappearance and reappearance of this wonder of nature every working day.

Our hope is to kindle more interest in this difficult and fascinating subject.