More than 200 millions of general anesthesia procedures are administered worldwide per year, and amnesia is an important component of it. So how does anesthesia affect the hippocampus? Surprisingly, we know very little about it.
Using a variety of different anesthetics and methods, we show that anesthesia decorrelates hippocampal activity, in sharp contrast from what we know from studies in the cortex. Further, anesthetics that have a stronger impact on hippocampal activity also alter spine dynamics and memory formation.
Anesthetics uniquely decorrelate hippocampal network activity, alter spine dynamics and affect memory consolidation
Yang, W., Chini, M., Poepplau, J. A., Formozov, A., Piechocinski, P., Rais, C., Morellini, F., Sporns, O., Hanganu-Opatz, I. L., Wiegert, J. S. (2020). bioRxiv.