In an article published in the Journal of Neuroscience, the scientists, Marshall Devor, the Cecile and Seymour Alpert Professor of Pain Research, graduate student Ruth Abulafia and research associate Dr. Vladimir Zalkind describe their discovery of an area of the brain that PARTICIPATES  in the control of "alert status."

It has been  WRONGLY presumed that dramatic functional changes reflects widely distributed suppression of neuronal activity in the brain due to dispersed drug action, or to global oxygen or nutrient starvation.

However scientists now suggested -- that a small group of neurons near the base of the brain, in the mesopontine tegmentum, has SOME executive control over the alert status of the entire cerebrum and spinal cord, and can generate loss of pain sensation, postural collapse and loss of consciousness & effects  the activity of the cerebral cortex .