As many as one in four patients who receive anesthesia may suffer accidental awareness during their procedure. Researchers have identified specific brain structures that may predict whether a person will experience accidental awareness under anesthesia. The findings will help identify patients who require higher than average doses of anesthesia.
Under anesthesia, neuron assemblies that respond to sound become indistinguishable from spontaneously active neurons. Findings suggest the state of unconsciousness produced by anesthesia forces the cerebral cortex to mask sensory input with spontaneous neural activity.
Researchers investigate the influence anesthesia has on brain functions.
Cannabis users undergoing gastric endoscopy procedures generally require more sedation than non-cannabis users, researchers report.
Some neurons in the cerebral cortex show higher spontaneous activity during general anesthesia than when awake, and this activity is synchronized across the cortical cells.
A new bio-inspired slow-release system for site 1 sodium channel blockers helps release anesthesia, providing prolonged nerve blocking with minimal toxicity.
A new statistical model lays groundwork for understanding how ketamine induces an anesthetic response, steps to monitor unconscious patients, and provides new information about brain activity while unconscious.
Following deep anesthesia, consciousness and cognitive processes unfold over time. The prefrontal cortex is the first brain area to recover, with areas associated with reaction time and attention taking longer to return to pre-anesthesia states.
A newly developed artificial intelligence algorithm can accurately and reliably assess unconsciousness in patients under anesthesia based on brain activity.
Propofol, the commonly used anesthetic, alters and controls the dynamics of the brain's rhythms. The findings can help doctors better monitor patients under anesthesia with the aid of EEG.
Researchers recorded the electrical activity in over 1000 neurons around 100 sites of the brain during different states of consciousness in monkeys. The results were analyzed by machine learning. Results pointed away from the prefrontal cortex, an area monitored to safely maintain general anesthesia, and toward areas at the back of the brain. The study reveals deep brain and areas toward the back of the brain are more predictive of states of consciousness.
Prolonged anesthesia significantly alters the synaptic architecture of the brain, regardless of age.