• J Raper, J C De Biasio, K L Murphy, M C Alvarado, and M G Baxter.
• Division of Developmental and Cognitive Neuroscience, Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Atlanta, GA, USA. Electronic address: jraper@emory.edu.
• Br J Anaesth. 2018 Apr 1; 120 (4): 761767761-767.

BackgroundSocio-emotional development is the expression and management of emotions, which in non-human primates can be examined using responses toward increasing levels of threat. Damage to the limbic system alters socio-emotional development in primates. Thus, neuronal and glial cell loss caused by exposure to general anaesthesia early in infancy might also impact socio-emotional development. We recently reported that repeated sevoflurane exposure in the first month of life alters emotional behaviours at 6 months of age and impairs visual recognition memory after the first year of life in rhesus monkeys. The present study evaluated socio-emotional behaviour at 1 and 2 yr of age in those same monkeys to determine the persistence of altered emotional behaviour.MethodsRhesus monkeys of both sexes were exposed to sevoflurane anaesthesia three times for 4 h each time in the first 6 weeks of life. At 1 and 2 yr of age, they were tested on the human intruder task, a well-established mild acute social stressor.ResultsMonkeys exposed to sevoflurane as infants exhibited normal fear and hostile responses, but exaggerated self-directed (displacement) behaviours, a general indicator of stress and anxiety in non-human primates.ConclusionsEarly repeated sevoflurane exposure in infant non-human primates results in an anxious phenotype that was first detected at 6 months, and persists for at least 2 yr of age. This is the first demonstration of such a prolonged impact of early anaesthesia exposure on emotional reactivity.Copyright © 2018 British Journal of Anaesthesia. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

18 keywords...

hide…