Consciousness and Cognition 9 (3):370-386 (2000)
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
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Keywords | *Consciousness States *General Anesthetics *Neurons *Reticular Formation *Thalamus Neuroanatomy Neurophysiology |
Categories | (categorize this paper) |
DOI | 10.1006/ccog.1999.0423 |
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References found in this work BETA
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The Functional Neuroanatomy of Awareness: With a Focus on the Role of Various Anatomical Systems in the Control of Intermodal Attention.John Smythies - 1997 - Consciousness and Cognition 6 (4):455-81.
Surprisingly Small Subcortical Structures Are Needed for the State of Waking Consciousness, While Cortical Projection Areas Seem to Provide Perceptual Contents of Consciousness.Bernard J. Baars - 1995 - Consciousness and Cognition 4 (2):159-62.
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Citations of this work BETA
Conscious States and Conscious Creatures: Explanation in the Scientific Study of Consciousness.Tim Bayne - 2007 - Philosophical Perspectives 21 (1):1–22.
Dendritic Integration Theory: A Thalamo-Cortical Theory of State and Content of Consciousness.Talis Bachmann, Mototaka Suzuki & Jaan Aru - 2020 - Philosophy and the Mind Sciences 1 (II).
Subjective Experience is Probably Not Limited to Humans: The Evidence From Neurobiology and Behavior.Bernard J. Baars - 2005 - Consciousness and Cognition 14 (1):7-21.
The Thalamic Dynamic Core Theory of Conscious Experience.Lawrence M. Ward - 2011 - Consciousness and Cognition 20 (2):464-486.
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