Neural Mechanisms of Anesthesia

Leading investigators critically evaluate the latest information on how anesthetics work at the molecular, cellular, organ, and whole animal level. These distinguished experts review anesthetic effects on memory, consciousness, and movement and spell out in detail both the anatomic structures and physiological processes that are their likely targets, as well as the cellular and molecular mechanisms by which they operate. Comprehensive and authoritative, Neural Mechanisms of Anesthesia draws together and critically reviews all the recent research on anesthetic mechanisms, highlighting the precise routes along which these substances operate, and how this deeper understanding will lead to the design of effective drugs free ofundesirable side effects.

I. Introduction.- 1 The Development of Concepts of Mechanisms of Anesthesia.- II. Anesthesia, Consciousness, and Memory.- 2 Mechanisms of Consciousness with Emphasis on the Cerebral Cortical Component.- 3 Anesthesia Meets Memory: Tools for Critical Appraisal.- III. Sleep, Coma, and Anesthesia—Similarities and Differences.- 4 Sleep and Anesthesia.- 5 Possible Relationships of Anesthetic Coma and Pathological Disorders of Consciousness.- IV. Neural Mechanisms.- 6 Cerebral Cortex—Anesthetic Action on the Electroencephalogram: Cellular and Synaptic Mechanisms and Clinical Monitoring.- 7 Cerebral Mechanisms of Analgesia and Anesthesia in Humans Elucidated by In Vivo Brain Imaging.- 8 Thalamus.- 9 The Hippocampus.- 10 Anesthetic Effects on the Reticular Formation, Brainstem and Central Nervous System Arousal.- 11 Anesthesia, the Spinal Cord and Motor Responses to Noxious Stimulation.- 12 Spinal Cord—Dorsal Horn.- 13 Spinal Cord: Anesthetic Actions on Motor Neurons.- 14 Simple Genetic Models for Anesthetic Action.- 15 Genetic Dissection of Anesthetic Action.- V. Cellular and Molecular Mechanisms.- 16 General Anesthetic Effects on GABAA Receptors.- 17 Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors and Anesthetics.- 18 Actions of General Anesthetic on Voltage-Gated Ion Channels.- 19 Glutamate Receptors: Physiology and Anesthetic Pharmacology.- 20 General Anesthetic Effects on Glycine Receptors.- 21 Presynaptic Actions of General Anesthetics.- 22 The Meyer-Overton Relationship and Its Exceptions.- 23 Protein Models.- 24 The Opioid Receptors.- 25 Local Anesthetics.- 26 Neuromuscular Blocking Agents and General Anesthesia.- VI. Future Research.- 27 The Future of Anesthetic Mechanisms Research.