Toward a unified theory of narcosis: brain imaging evidence for a thalamocortical switch as the neurophysiologic basis of anesthetic-induced unconsciousness. Export

@article{citeulike:771731, abstract = {A unifying theory of general anesthetic-induced unconsciousness must explain the common mechanism through which various anesthetic agents produce unconsciousness. Functional-brain-imaging data obtained from 11 volunteers during general anesthesia showed specific suppression of regional thalamic and midbrain reticular formation activity across two different commonly used volatile agents. These findings are discussed in relation to findings from sleep neurophysiology and the implications of this work for consciousness research. It is hypothesized that the essential common neurophysiologic mechanism underlying anesthetic-induced unconsciousness is, as with sleep-induced unconsciousness, a hyperpolarization block of thalamocortical neurons. A model of anesthetic-induced unconsciousness is introduced to explain how the plethora of effects anesthetics have on cellular functioning ultimately all converge on a single neuroanatomic/neurophysiologic system, thus providing for a unitary physiologic theory of narcosis related to consciousness.}, address = {Department of Anesthesiology, University of California at Irvine, Irvine, California 92697, USA. Malkire@uci.edu}, author = {Alkire, M. T. and Haier, R. J. and Fallon, J. H.}, citeulike-article-id = {771731}, citeulike-linkout-0 = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/ccog.1999.0423}, citeulike-linkout-1 = {http://view.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10993665}, citeulike-linkout-2 = {http://www.hubmed.org/display.cgi?uids=10993665}, citeulike-linkout-3 = {http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6WD0-45FCFVY-N/1/8f78bff47631eab810b17420e433a620}, doi = {10.1006/ccog.1999.0423}, issn = {1053-8100}, journal = {Conscious Cogn}, keywords = {anesthesia, consciousness, depth-of-anesthesia}, month = {September}, number = {3}, pages = {370--386}, posted-at = {2008-04-13 02:24:44}, priority = {2}, title = {Toward a unified theory of narcosis: brain imaging evidence for a thalamocortical switch as the neurophysiologic basis of anesthetic-induced unconsciousness.}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/ccog.1999.0423}, volume = {9}, year = {2000} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:771731 L3 - citeulike-article-id:771731 N2 - A unifying theory of general anesthetic-induced unconsciousness must explain the common mechanism through which various anesthetic agents produce unconsciousness. Functional-brain-imaging data obtained from 11 volunteers during general anesthesia showed specific suppression of regional thalamic and midbrain reticular formation activity across two different commonly used volatile agents. These findings are discussed in relation to findings from sleep neurophysiology and the implications of this work for consciousness research. It is hypothesized that the essential common neurophysiologic mechanism underlying anesthetic-induced unconsciousness is, as with sleep-induced unconsciousness, a hyperpolarization block of thalamocortical neurons. A model of anesthetic-induced unconsciousness is introduced to explain how the plethora of effects anesthetics have on cellular functioning ultimately all converge on a single neuroanatomic/neurophysiologic system, thus providing for a unitary physiologic theory of narcosis related to consciousness. IS - 3 JF - Conscious Cogn SN - 1053-8100 AD - Department of Anesthesiology, University of California at Irvine, Irvine, California 92697, USA. Malkire@uci.edu EP - 386 TI - Toward a unified theory of narcosis: brain imaging evidence for a thalamocortical switch as the neurophysiologic basis of anesthetic-induced unconsciousness. VL - 9 SP - 370 KW - anesthesia KW - consciousness KW - depth-of-anesthesia AU - Alkire, MT AU - Haier, RJ AU - Fallon, JH PY - 2000/09// UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/ccog.1999.0423 ER -