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Published on: October 16, 2013
Neural Substrates for the Regulation of Sleep and General Anesthesia
Qianzi Yang1, Fang Zhou1, Ao Li1
1Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, Xijing Hospital, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, China.
Abstract:
General anesthesia has been successfully used in clinics for over 170 years, but its mechanisms of effect remain unclear. Behaviorally, general anesthesia is similar to sleep as it produces a reversible transition between wakefulness and the state of being unaware of one's surroundings. A discussion regarding the common circuits of sleep and general anesthesia has been ongoing as an increasing number of sleep-arousal regulatory nuclei are reported to participate in the consciousness shift occurring during general anesthesia. Recently, with progress in research technology, both positive and negative evidence for overlapping neural circuits between sleep and general anesthesia has emerged. This article provides a review of the latest evidence on the neural substrates for sleep and general anesthesia regulation by comparing the roles of pivotal nuclei in sleep and anesthesia.
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