system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
What is happening in the brain when someone is unconscious?
gpt
We don't know exactly what is happening but here is the best guess.  Anytime someone is unconscious (that is not medically induced) they have either sustained a traumatic head injury or are seizing.  We know that the brain stem is usually spared because they are breathing and the heart continues to contract. The exception to this of course is when a seizure affects the midbrain and thus the occulomotor control goes out the window.  We also know that the "working memory" which is in the prefrontal cortex, is damaged, as well as the hippocampus.  This accounts for the memory loss of up to a minute before the incident. Other than that there is cell death.