The DOI matches its Crossref record; 282 of the 283 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Brain areas that influence general anesthesia
Abstract
This document reviews the literature on local brain manipulation of general anesthesia in animals, focusing on behavioral and electrographic effects related to hypnosis or loss of consciousness. Local inactivation or lesion of wake-active areas, such as locus coeruleus, dorsal raphe, pedunculopontine tegmental nucleus, perifornical area, tuberomammillary nucleus, ventral tegmental area and basal forebrain, enhanced general anesthesia. Anesthesia enhancement was shown as a delayed emergence (recovery of righting reflex) from anesthesia or a decrease in the minimal alveolar concentration that induced loss of righting. Local activation of various wake-active areas, including pontis oralis and centromedial thalamus, promoted behavioral or electrographic arousal during maintained anesthesia and facilitated emergence. Lesion of the sleep-active ventrolateral preoptic area resulted in increased wakefulness and decreased isoflurane sensitivity, but only for 6 days after lesion. Inactivation of any structure within limbic circuits involving the medial septum, hippocampus, nucleus accumbens, ventral pallidum, and ventral tegmental area, amygdala, entorhinal and piriform cortex delayed emergence from anesthesia, and often reduced anesthetic-induced behavioral excitation. In summary, the concept that anesthesia works on the sleep-wake system has received strong support from studies that inactivated/lesioned or activated wake-active areas, and weak support from studies that lesioned sleep-active areas. In addition to the conventional wake-sleep areas, limbic structures such as the medial septum, hippocampus and prefrontal cortex are also involved in the behavioral response to general anesthesia. We suggest that hypnosis during general anesthesia may result from disrupting the wake-active neuronal activities in multiple areas and suppressing an atropine-resistant cortical activation associated with movements.
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“Many of these nuclei have been explored as targets of the inhibitory effects of general anesthetics [113]”
From The Biology of General Anesthesia from Paramecium to Primate (2019) · cites this paper as [113]
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Metadata
- Authors
- Leung, L. S., Luo, T., Ma, J., & Herrick, I.
- Affiliations
- Peking University Shenzhen Hospital (CN)
- Western University (CA)
- ORCID
- Venue
- Progress in Neurobiology
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2014-11
- Volume
- 122
- Pages
- 24-44
- ISSN
- 0301-0082 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2001908985
- Cited by
- 126
- References
- 283
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 15 · 2023: 19 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 16 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 13 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 7 · 2014: 2
- FWCI
- 0.74
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Progress in Neurobiology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Scholarship@Western (Western University) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Canadian Institutes of Health
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Sleep and Wakefulness Research
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine › Anesthesia and Sedative Agents
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Developmental Neuroscience › Anesthesia and Neurotoxicity Research
- Keywords
- general anesthesia, emergence from anesthesia, locus coeruleus, dorsal raphe nucleus, pedunculopontine nucleus, perifornical area, tuberomammillary nucleus, ventral tegmental area, basal forebrain, ventrolateral preoptic area, limbic system, medial septum, hippocampus, nucleus accumbens, ventral pallidum, amygdala, prefrontal cortex, anesthetic sensitivity, isoflurane, loss of consciousness, hypnosis, righting reflex, lesion studies, brain activation
- MeSH terms
- Anesthesia, General, Animals, Brain, Humans, Sleep, Wakefulness, Anesthetics, General
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