Local versus global effects of isoflurane anesthesia on visual processing in the fly brain

Introduction Introduction Results Discussion Methods References Volatile general anesthetics such as isoflurane abolish behavioral responsiveness in all animals, but the neural underpinnings of this phenomenon remain unclear (van Swinderen and Kottler, 2014). Although the cellular and molecular mechanisms through which general anesthetics work have been quite well characterized (Franks, 2008, Garcia et al., 2010, Brown et al., 2011), it is unclear what aspect of neural activity is at the core of the profound disconnection from the environment that is induced by all general anesthetics. To some extent, our understanding of the mechanisms of general anesthesia has paralleled our understanding of how the brain works, from neurons and action potentials, to receptor ...