Anesthesiology
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Editorial Comment
Sometimes you have to revisit the past to understand the present.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging of a low dose of dexmedetomidine that impairs long-term memory.
Work suggests the amnesia from dexmedetomidine (an α2-adrenergic agonist) is caused by a failure of information to be encoded into long-term memory and that dexmedetomidine might differentially affect memory for emotionally arousing material. We investigated these issues in humans using event-related neuroimaging to reveal alterations in brain activity and subsequent memory effects associated with drug exposure. ⋯ Dexmedetomidine impaired long-term picture memory, but did not disproportionately block memory for emotionally arousing items. The memory impairment on dexmedetomidine corresponds with a weakened hippocampal subsequent memory effect.