Neural Mechanisms of Anesthesia

Description

Although anesthetics have been used successfully for over 150 years, their mechanisms of action are little understood, a fact that significantly limits our ability to design new and safer agents. In 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. They also discuss drugs that are not truly general anesthetics, but are frequently used in clinical practice and can affect the action of general anesthetics (e.g., local anesthetics, opiates, neuromuscular blocking drugs). 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 of undesirable side effects. Front Matter....Pages i-xii Front Matter....Pages 1-1 The Development of Concepts of Mechanisms of Anesthesia....Pages 3-10 Front Matter....Pages 11-11 Mechanisms of Consciousness with Emphasis on the Cerebral Cortical Component....Pages 13-20 Anesthesia Meets Memory....Pages 21-62 Front Matter....Pages 63-63 Sleep and Anesthesia....Pages 65-74 Possible Relationships of Anesthetic Coma and Pathological Disorders of Consciousness....Pages 75-89 Front Matter....Pages 91-91 Cerebral Cortex—Anesthetic Action on the Electroencephalogram....Pages 93-112 Cerebral Mechanisms of Analgesia and Anesthesia in Humans Elucidated by In Vivo Brain Imaging....Pages 113-123 Thalamus....Pages 125-147 The Hippocampus....Pages 149-167 Anesthetic Effects on the Reticular Formation, Brainstem and Central Nervous System Arousal....Pages 169-182 Anesthesia, the Spinal Cord and Motor Responses to Noxious Stimulation....Pages 183-204 Spinal Cord-Dorsal Horn....Pages 205-214 Spinal Cord Anesthetic Actions on Motor Neurons....Pages 215-230 Simple Genetic Models for Anesthetic Action....Pages 231-248 Genetic Dissection of Anesthetic Action....Pages 249-261 Front Matter....Pages 263-263 General Anesthetic Effects on GABA A Receptors....Pages 265-282 Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors and Anesthetics....Pages 283-297 Actions of General Anesthetic on Voltage-Gated Ion Channels....Pages 299-318 Glutamate Receptors....Pages 319-332 General Anesthetic Effects on Glycine Receptors....Pages 333-344 Front Matter....Pages 263-263 Presynaptic Actions of General Anesthetics....Pages 345-369 The Meyer-Overton Relationship and Its Exceptions....Pages 371-394 Protein Models....Pages 395-412 The Opioid Receptors....Pages 413-425 Local Anesthetics....Pages 427-440 Neuromuscular Blocking Agents and General Anesthesia....Pages 441-446 Front Matter....Pages 447-447 The Future of Anesthetic Mechanisms Research....Pages 449-453 Back Matter....Pages 455-466