Probing the Mind: Anesthesia and Neuroimaging

In 1947, a second power of anesthesia was described: “With anesthetic agents we seem to have a tool for producing and holding at will, and at little risk, different levels of consciousness—a tool that promises to be of great help in studies of mental phenomena.” 1 In 1995, anesthetic manipulation was coupled with neuroimaging, 2 paving the way for detailed assessments of the relationship between the structure and the functioning of the brain. 3 Anesthesia combined with neuroimaging thus provides a unique tool for investigating the neural correlates of human cognition. Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics (2008); 84 , 1, 149–152 doi: 10.1038/clpt.2008.75