Scientists have discovered an unexpected fact: the brain may continue processing language even when a person is under general anesthesia and completely unconscious.

The study results were published in the journal Nature.

Researchers studied brain activity in seven patients undergoing epilepsy surgery. They used special sensors that recorded signals directly from the hippocampus — a brain region associated with memory.

First, simple sounds were played to patients under anesthesia. The researchers found that neurons were able to distinguish between repetitive and unusual signals. Moreover, their “recognition” became more accurate over time.

The experiment was then made more complex: patients were played short stories. This is where the most interesting findings emerged — the brain was not just reacting to speech, but was distinguishing different parts of speech, including nouns, verbs, and adjectives.

An even more surprising result was that brain activity suggested it could “predict” upcoming words before they were actually spoken.

Such a level of information processing is usually associated with wakefulness and attention — not with a state of deep anesthesia.

Scientists emphasize that the findings currently apply only to one type of anesthesia and one specific brain region, so it is too early to draw conclusions about sleep or coma. However, the discovery suggests that the brain may remain far more “active” than previously believed.

Researchers believe these findings could eventually help improve understanding of brain recovery after stroke and other types of neurological damage.