DRUGS IN ANESTHESIA: Edited by Thomas K. Henthorn

Conscious processing

implications for general anesthesia

Changeux, Jean-Pierre G.

Author Information

Collège de France and Institut Pasteur, Paris, France

Correspondence to Jean-Pierre G. Changeux, PhD, Collège de France and Institut Pasteur, URA CNRS 2182, 25 rue du Dr Roux, Paris Cedex 15 75724, France. Tel: +33 1 45 48 44 64; e-mail: [email protected]

Current Opinion in Anaesthesiology 25(4):p 397-404, August 2012. | DOI: 10.1097/ACO.0b013e32835561de

Abstract

Purpose of review 

Can a general anesthetic binding to its membrane receptors alter global brain activity to cause loss of consciousness?

Recent findings 

The identification of the neurobiological mechanisms of conscious processing in awake patients that are altered by general anesthetics and the atomic structure of the general anesthetic's binding site.

Summary 

An important feature of general anesthesia is a preferential inhibition of global feedback connectivity when general anesthetics bind to allosteric sites of gamma-aminobutyric acid receptors present in the cerebral cortex.

© 2012 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Inc.

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