General anesthesia hinders brain communication
.jpg)
Loss of consciousness by general anesthesia prevents the patient from feeling pain or discomfort during surgery. But scientists do not know how to get anesthesia, that is, how it influences the brain. Now, a recent work published in the journal PNAS has shown that the activity of some areas of the brain changes, making communication between the different regions of the brain difficult.
The microelectrodes measured the cortical activity of three patients to whom the anaesthetic propofol was administered. And they saw that at the time of the loss of consciousness, suddenly, waves of low oscillation appeared in the brain. These waves appeared in different areas of the brain at different times. According to the researchers, the presence of asynchronous waves could hinder brain communication. In fact, although local neuronal networks maintain a normal activity, they are isolated in time and space.
One thing that does not explain this work is whether low oscillation waves cause a loss of consciousness or, on the contrary, a loss of consciousness. To do this, they should demonstrate that the implementation of these low oscillation waves is sufficient to cause a loss of consciousness. On the other hand, researchers consider that it is very likely that other anesthetics will work the same way, and now want to study it.Zu idazle
Zientzia aldizkaria
