Division of Anaesthesia, School of Clinical Medicine, Addenbrooke's Hospital, University of Cambridge, Hills Rd., Cambridge CB2 0QQ, UK; Department of Clinical Neurosciences, School of Clinical Medicine, Addenbrooke's Hospital, University of Cambridge, Hills Rd., Cambridge CB2 0QQ, UK
Lennart R.B. Spindler
Division of Anaesthesia, School of Clinical Medicine, Addenbrooke's Hospital, University of Cambridge, Hills Rd., Cambridge CB2 0QQ, UK; Department of Clinical Neurosciences, School of Clinical Medicine, Addenbrooke's Hospital, University of Cambridge, Hills Rd., Cambridge CB2 0QQ, UK
Andrea I. Luppi
Division of Anaesthesia, School of Clinical Medicine, Addenbrooke's Hospital, University of Cambridge, Hills Rd., Cambridge CB2 0QQ, UK; Department of Clinical Neurosciences, School of Clinical Medicine, Addenbrooke's Hospital, University of Cambridge, Hills Rd., Cambridge CB2 0QQ, UK
Ram Adapa
Division of Anaesthesia, School of Clinical Medicine, Addenbrooke's Hospital, University of Cambridge, Hills Rd., Cambridge CB2 0QQ, UK; Division of Neurosurgery, School of Clinical Medicine, Addenbrooke's Hospital, University of Cambridge, Hills Rd., Cambridge CB2 0QQ, UK
Lorina Naci
Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience, School of Psychology, Trinity College Dublin, Lloyd Building, Dublin 2, Ireland
Judith Allanson
Department of Clinical Neurosciences, School of Clinical Medicine, Addenbrooke's Hospital, University of Cambridge, Hills Rd., Cambridge CB2 0QQ, UK; Department of Neurosciences, Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation, Hills Rd., Cambridge, CB2 0QQ, UK
Paola Finoia
Division of Anaesthesia, School of Clinical Medicine, Addenbrooke's Hospital, University of Cambridge, Hills Rd., Cambridge CB2 0QQ, UK; Division of Neurosurgery, School of Clinical Medicine, Addenbrooke's Hospital, University of Cambridge, Hills Rd., Cambridge CB2 0QQ, UK
Guy B. Williams
Department of Clinical Neurosciences, School of Clinical Medicine, Addenbrooke's Hospital, University of Cambridge, Hills Rd., Cambridge CB2 0QQ, UK; Wolfson Brain Imaging Centre, University of Cambridge, Cambridge Biomedical Campus (Box 65), Cambridge CB2 0QQ, UK
John D. Pickard
Department of Clinical Neurosciences, School of Clinical Medicine, Addenbrooke's Hospital, University of Cambridge, Hills Rd., Cambridge CB2 0QQ, UK; Division of Neurosurgery, School of Clinical Medicine, Addenbrooke's Hospital, University of Cambridge, Hills Rd., Cambridge CB2 0QQ, UK; Wolfson Brain Imaging Centre, University of Cambridge, Cambridge Biomedical Campus (Box 65), Cambridge CB2 0QQ, UK
Adrian M. Owen
The Brain and Mind Institute, Western Interdisciplinary Research Building, University of Western Ontario, London, ON N6A 5B7, Canada
David K. Menon
Division of Anaesthesia, School of Clinical Medicine, Addenbrooke's Hospital, University of Cambridge, Hills Rd., Cambridge CB2 0QQ, UK; Wolfson Brain Imaging Centre, University of Cambridge, Cambridge Biomedical Campus (Box 65), Cambridge CB2 0QQ, UK
Emmanuel A. Stamatakis
Division of Anaesthesia, School of Clinical Medicine, Addenbrooke's Hospital, University of Cambridge, Hills Rd., Cambridge CB2 0QQ, UK; Department of Clinical Neurosciences, School of Clinical Medicine, Addenbrooke's Hospital, University of Cambridge, Hills Rd., Cambridge CB2 0QQ, UK; Corresponding author at: Division of Anaesthesia, School of Clinical Medicine, Addenbrooke's Hospital, University of Cambridge, Hills Rd., Cambridge CB2 0SP, UK.
Small world topologies are thought to provide a valuable insight into human brain organisation and consciousness. However, functional magnetic resonance imaging studies in consciousness have not yielded consistent results. Given the importance of dynamics for both consciousness and cognition, here we investigate how the diversity of small world dynamics (quantified by sample entropy; dSW-E11 dSW-E= dynamic small world entropy) scales with decreasing levels of awareness (i.e., sedation and disorders of consciousness). Paying particular attention to result reproducibility, we show that dSW-E is a consistent predictor of levels of awareness even when controlling for the underlying functional connectivity dynamics. We find that dSW-E of subcortical, and cortical areas are predictive, with the former showing higher and more robust effect sizes across analyses. We find that the network dynamics of intermodular communication in the cerebellum also have unique predictive power for levels of awareness. Consequently, we propose that the dynamic reorganisation of the functional information architecture, in particular of the subcortex, is a characteristic that emerges with awareness and has explanatory power beyond that of the complexity of dynamic functional connectivity.