Main description:

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.

Contents:

I. Introduction

The Development of Concepts of Mechanisms of Anesthesia
Donald Caton and Joseph F. Antognini

II. Anesthesia, Consciousness, and Memory

Mechanisms of Consciousness with Emphasis on the Cerebral Cortical Component
G. Bryan Young

Anesthesia Meets Memory: Tools for Critical Appraisal
Robert A. Veselis

III. Sleep, Coma, and Anesthesia-Similarities and Differences

Sleep and Anesthesia
John Keifer

Possible Relationships of Anesthetic Coma and Pathological Disorders of Consciousness
Nicholas D. Schiff and Fred Plum

IV. Neural Mechanisms

Cerebral Cortex-Anesthetic Action on the Electroencephalogram: Cellular and Synaptic Mechanisms and Clinical Monitoring
Heath Lukatch and Scott Greenwald

Cerebral Mechanisms of Analgesia and Anesthesia in Humans Elucidated by In Vivo Brain Imaging
Ferenc Gyulai and Leonard Firestone

Thalamus
Anthony Angel

The Hippocampus
M. Bruce MacIver

Anesthetic Effects on the Reticular Formation, Brainstem and Central Nervous System Arousal
Joseph F. Antognini and Earl Carstens

Anesthesia, the Spinal Cord and Motor Responses to Noxious Stimulation
Joseph F. Antognini and Earl Carstens

Spinal Cord-Dorsal Horn
J. G. Collins

Spinal Cord: Anesthetic Actions on Motor Neurons
Joan J. Kendig

Simple Genetic Models for Anesthetic Action
Philip G. Morgan and Margaret Sedensky

Genetic Dissection of Anesthetic Action
Gregg E. Homanics and Leonard L. Firestone

V. Cellular and Molecular Mechanisms

General Anesthetic Effects on GABAA Receptors
Robert A. Pearce

Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors and Anesthetics
Stuart A. Forman, Pamela Flood, and Douglas Raines

Actions of General Anesthetic on Voltage-Gated Ion Channels
Norbert Topf, Esperanza Recio-Pinto, Thomas J. J. Blanck, and Hugh C. Hemmings, Jr

Glutamate Receptors: Physiology and Anesthetic Pharmacology
Misha Perouansky and Joseph F. Antognini

General Anesthetic Effects on Glycine Receptors
Stephen Daniels

Presynaptic Actions of General Anesthetics
Misha Perouansky and Hugh C. Hemmings, Jr

The Meyer-Overton Relationship and Its Exceptions
Warren S. Sandberg and Keith W. Miller

Protein Models
Jonas S. Johansson and Roderic G. Eckenhoff

The Opioid Receptors
Gary J. Brenner, Jianren Mao, and Carl Rosow

Local Anesthetics
Ging Kuo Wang

Neuromuscular Blocking Agents and General Anesthesia
Gerald A. Gronert and Timothy Tautz

VI. Future Research

The Future of Anesthetic Mechanisms Research
Joseph F. Antognini, Douglas E. Raines, and Earl Carstens

Index