Enduring questions over which part of the brain helps produce that feeling of being'awake' have been answered, thanks to stunningly detailed new brain imagery. Researchers' new high-resolution brain scans allowed them to see brain connections at a granular'submillimeter' level -- meaning down to a tiny 3/100ths of an inch. The images were then used to map a neural network of previously unseen pathways in the brain, called the'default ascending arousal network' or dAAN, which they now theorize is the core region that helps humans sustain wakeful consciousness. In recent years, the neuroscientists studying consciousness have divided this curious mystery of how the human brain is self-aware into two sub-categories: 'arousal' (wakefulness) and'awareness' (the subjective experience of being alive). The researchers hope their work exploring this dAAN pathway will help develop new treatments for patients with comas, or other conditions that hinge on wakefulness.

There can be few feelings more comforting than the warm, fuzzy envelopment of sleep as you drift off after a hard day's work. Now researchers may have found a clue as to why sleep can make us feel so good. They have discovered a key brain circuit that is indispensable to our sleep cycle and is also a major component of our internal reward system. Scientists have discovered a key brain circuit in helping us drift off to sleep (stock picture). The circuit of neurons, known as the ventral tegmental area, helps to motivate us to perform behaviours like looking for food, having sex or fleeing from predators.