This research might even one day make it possible to help people with otherwise intact brains who are comatose, by stimulating the MPTA region of the brain to wake them up.

But smoother surgeries, sounder sleeps or even helping people in comas are not the only possible implications of the research. "From a science point of view, we're talking about the circuitry of consciousness," Dr. Devor says. If his team really has discovered a "switch" between wakefulness and sleep, it provides new insight into "how the brain manages consciousness," he says. This points to the "deepest and most important and exciting question of neuroscience, or perhaps of science altogether: How does electrical activity and chemical activity become translated into mind?"

Currently, Dr. Devor's lab is investigating neural pathways involved in the MPTA, and also seeing what effect tinkering with them has on alertness. "The fact is we've got a little tiny localized cluster that has widespread control over [other] areas," he says.

"Considering anesthetics have been used for 150 years in surgery -- it's what permits surgery -- it's amazing there are very few labs studying the circuitry involved and how it exactly works," he says.


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