Application of new techniques in mechanistic study of general anesthesia

Background The mechanisms underlying the actions of general anesthetics are poorly understood. The application of breakthrough techniques in neuroscience research could advance our understanding of general anesthesia. Objective To review the application of research techniques to study the mechanisms underlying the actions of general anesthetics. Content Studies using conventional neuroscience research techniques revealed that general anesthetics may cause deep anesthesia by targeting at least three parts, thalamocortical pathway, classical sleep-wake circuitry, and cortical fragmentation circuits. The combination of viral vector-assisted retrograde and anterograde neuronal tracing and transgenic Cre-mouse lines allows tracing neural pathways involving particular neuron types. Application of optogenetics, chemogenetics, in vivo calcium imaging, and microdialysis and neuroimaging techniques would overcome the obstacles unconquerable to conventional techniques and fulfill in vivo real-time neuroimaging, neurochemical and behavioral monitoring, and neuromodulations as well. Trend More investigations incorporate the multidisciplinary techniques to systemically study the potential targets of general anesthetics, and evaluate the involvement of the targets in various aspects of anesthesia. These studies could pave the avenue to eventually solve the mystery of general anesthesia. Key words: Anesthetics, general; Mechanism; New techniques