All general anesthetics act in the brain stem region to induce slow brain oscillations. Brown shares EEG spectrograms that clearly show that the brain response to anesthesia varies with age. Younger brains show strong oscillations while those of older brains show weaker oscillations. Interestingly, not all brains “age” at the same rate. By using EEG spectrogram to visualize brain dynamics, anesthesiologists can optimize drug dosage for individual patients. Brown closes his talk by presenting recent research suggesting that it may be possible to “turn the brain back on” after general anesthesia as a way to speed patient recovery.
View the full talk with additional resources on our website
Anesthesia and the Brain
What happens to your brain under general anesthesia? EEG recordings can measure brain dynamics of patients under general anesthesia and may inform the development of safer and more specific anesthetics. (Talk recorded in August 2019)
- Part 1: Unconsciousness Under General Anesthetic is a Dynamic StateAudience:
- Student
- Researcher
- Educators of H. School / Intro Undergrad
- Educators of Adv. Undergrad / Grad
Duration: 00:42:23 - Part 2: The Dynamics of the Brain Under AnesthesiaAudience:
- Student
- Researcher
- Educators
- Educators of H. School / Intro Undergrad
- Educators of Adv. Undergrad / Grad
Duration: 00:32:05