Usefulness of anaesthesia

Understanding how patients wake from anaesthesia and under what circumstances they struggle could also help scientists with how to treat disorders of consciousness, including coma. 

Researchers can use general anaesthesia to control the transition into and out of unconsciousness. Like anaesthesia, a coma seems to alter essential communication between different brain networks.

Researchers already use anaesthesia to test potential coma therapies. For example, Ritalin, often prescribed for ADHD, has been found to bring rats back to consciousness after general anaesthesia.