The Effects of Propofol on Hurst Exponent During Rest and Narrative Listening

The current study utilized a rarely used statistical tool in anesthetic research, Hurst analysis, to a group of participants who received propofol administration. Our results suggest that the visual imagery pathway, involving visual attention, primary and secondary visual cortex, is the primary target for propofol modulation during sedation. The moving window approach revealed qualitative differences in the brain activity within a single scanning session, which has not been reported in the literature. Together, our findings add to the emerging literature on the dissociation between mental imagery abilities and consciousness and provide evidence for visual imagery processing in behaviorally unresponsive participants.