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Anesthesia, Neural Population Models of

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Encyclopedia of Computational Neuroscience

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Definition

General anesthesia is a reversible, drug-induced state of unconsciousness characterized by lack of awareness of surroundings, lack of responsiveness to painful stimuli (nociception), and inability to form memories (amnesia). The change in brain state from wakeful to unconscious produces alterations in cortical electrical activity that can be monitored with electrodes placed on the scalp (electroencephalogram (EEG)) or on the surface of the cortex (electrocorticogram (ECoG)). The goal of neural modelers is to develop equations that describe the gross behavior of spatially averaged populations of neurons during both induction of and recovery from general anesthesia.

Detailed Description

Classes of General Anesthesia

There are two broad classes of anesthetic drugs: inductive agents (such as propofol, etomidate, isoflurane) that produce a slowed sleeplike EEG and dissociative agents (e.g., ketamine, nitrous oxide) that induce a dissociated state with an activated EEG similar to...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Engineering, University of Waikato, Hamilton, Waikato, New Zealand

    Prof. D. Alistair Steyn-Ross & Prof. Moira Steyn-Ross

  2. Waikato Clinical School, University of Auckland, Waikato Hospital, Hamilton, Waikato, New Zealand

    Prof. Jamie Sleigh

Authors
  1. Prof. D. Alistair Steyn-Ross
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  2. Prof. Moira Steyn-Ross
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  3. Prof. Jamie Sleigh
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to D. Alistair Steyn-Ross .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Atlanta, Georgia, USA

    Dieter Jaeger

  2. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Florida International University, Miami, Florida, USA

    Ranu Jung

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Steyn-Ross, D.A., Steyn-Ross, M., Sleigh, J. (2014). Anesthesia, Neural Population Models of. In: Jaeger, D., Jung, R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Computational Neuroscience. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7320-6_52-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7320-6_52-1

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  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-7320-6

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