Anesthesia Mechanisms: A Patchwork Quilt rather than a Wet Blanket?

Editorial| October 2021 Anesthesia Mechanisms: A Patchwork Quilt rather than a Wet Blanket? Logan Voss, Ph.D.; Logan Voss, Ph.D. From the Department of Anaesthesiology, Waikato Clinical Campus, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, University of Auckland, Hamilton, New Zealand Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Jamie W. Sleigh, M.D. Jamie W. Sleigh, M.D. From the Department of Anaesthesiology, Waikato Clinical Campus, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, University of Auckland, Hamilton, New Zealand Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Author and Article Information This editorial accompanies the article on p. 633. Accepted for publication June 11, 2021. Address correspondence to Dr. Sleigh: jamie.sleigh@waikatodhb.health.nz Anesthesiology October 2021, Vol. 135, 568–569. https://doi.org/10.1097/ALN.0000000000003879 Connected Content Article: Excitation of Putative Glutamatergic Neurons in the Rat Parabrachial Nucleus Region Reduces Delta Power during Dexmedetomidine but not Ketamine Anesthesia Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Twitter LinkedIn Cite Icon Cite Get Permissions Search Site Citation Logan Voss, Jamie W. Sleigh; Anesthesia Mechanisms: A Patchwork Quilt rather than a Wet Blanket?. Anesthesiology 2021; 135:568–569 doi: https://doi.org/10.1097/ALN.0000000000003879 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search nav search search input Search input auto suggest search filter All ContentAll PublicationsAnesthesiology Search Advanced Search Topics: anesthesia, general, arousal, brain, cell nucleus, dexmedetomidine, emergence from anesthesia, fire - disasters, fire - physical phenomenon, gamma-aminobutyric acid, hypnotics Scientific models attempt to be the best representations of the available facts. The so-called “wet blanket” model of anesthetic action assumed that anesthetic drugs distribute evenly to all brain regions and nonspecifically dampen down the fire of global neuronal activity, leading to the unresponsive anesthetized state. Over time it has become clear that specific brain regions contribute to different behavioral anesthetic effects, such as amnesia (hippocampus) and immobility (spinal cord). Technological advances that enable ever greater spatial and physiologic resolution continue to refine our understanding of where and how anesthetics work in the brain. In this issue of Anesthesiology, Melonakos et al. report on anesthetic interactions within the dorsal pontine region of the ascending reticular activating system, known as the parabrachial nucleus.1 Utilizing a cutting-edge technique known as Designer Receptors Exclusively Activated by Designer Drugs (DREADDs), the authors investigated whether parabrachial nucleus excitation could reverse dexmedetomidine or... You do not currently have access to this content.