Anesthesiology
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Functional brain connectivity studies can provide important information about changes in brain-state dynamics during general anesthesia. In adults, γ-aminobutyric acid-mediated agents disrupt integration of information from local to the whole-brain scale. Beginning around 3 to 4 months postnatal age, γ-aminobutyric acid-mediated anesthetics such as sevoflurane generate α-electroencephalography oscillations. In previous studies of sevoflurane-anesthetized infants 0 to 3.9 months of age, α-oscillations were absent, and power spectra did not distinguish between anesthetized and emergence from anesthesia conditions. Few studies detailing functional connectivity during general anesthesia in infants exist. This study's aim was to identify changes in functional connectivity of the infant brain during anesthesia. ⋯ Sevoflurane is associated with decreased capacity for efficient information transfer in the infant brain. Such findings strengthen the hypothesis that conscious processing relies on an efficient system of integrated information transfer across the whole brain.
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Commercial applications of artificial intelligence and machine learning have made remarkable progress recently, particularly in areas such as image recognition, natural speech processing, language translation, textual analysis, and self-learning. Progress had historically languished in these areas, such that these skills had come to seem ineffably bound to intelligence. However, these commercial advances have performed best at single-task applications in which imperfect outputs and occasional frank errors can be tolerated. ⋯ It embodies a requirement for high reliability, and a pressured cycle of interpretation, physical action, and response rather than any single cognitive act. This review covers the basics of what is meant by artificial intelligence and machine learning for the practicing anesthesiologist, describing how decision-making behaviors can emerge from simple equations. Relevant clinical questions are introduced to illustrate how machine learning might help solve them-perhaps bringing anesthesiology into an era of machine-assisted discovery.
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Editorial Comment
The Art of General Anesthesia: Juggling in a Multidimensional Space.