Anesthetic Alterations of Collective Terahertz Oscillations in Tubulin Correlate with Clinical Potency: Implications for Anesthetic Action and Post-Operative Cognitive Dysfunction

" ... Shifs in the resonance patterns between tubulin dimers, such as by the addition of an anesthetic molecule as shown here, could “mask” this long range recognition required for ideal polymerization rates." {Credits 1}

" In regards to anesthetic action, high-frequency neural oscillations have been associated with conscious states, while low-frequency activity has been associated with unconscious states [68]. Coherence theories of anesthesia suggest that general anesthetics act by disrupting coherent neuronal activity in critical brain structures [69]. On a fner scale, mechanics of individual microtubules contribute to neuronal shape and structure and the physical processes underlying axonal growth cone and dendritic spine motility, as well as intracellular transport. Since microtubule stifness variation can afect whole cell morphology [70] and intracellular transport, this could lead to changes in the timing of neuron firing and neuron function, resulting in a loss of coherence and ultimately anesthesia." {Credits 1}

{Credits 1} 🎪 Craddock, T.J.A., Kurian, P., Preto, J. et al. Anesthetic Alterations of Collective Terahertz Oscillations in Tubulin Correlate with Clinical Potency: Implications for Anesthetic Action and Post-Operative Cognitive Dysfunction. Sci Rep 7, 9877 (2017) doi:10.1038/s41598-017-09992-7. © 2017 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0.