Consciousness and cognition
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This paper discusses the ways in which anesthetic agents can be used to investigate the role of awareness in learning and memory. It reviews research into learning during light, subclinical anesthesia, termed hypesthesia. ⋯ Overall, these findings are consistent with the hypothesis (e.g., Caseley-Rondi, 1996) that frontal lobe function is particularly sensitive to anesthetics. They raise theoretical and practical questions about the necessity of consciousness for learning and about interpretation of the evidence for learning during surgery under general anesthesia.
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Evidence coming from several studies into memory and awareness during general anesthesia suggests that in surgical patients who seem to be adequately anesthetized (i.e., unaware of what happens in the operating theater), some form of cognitive functioning is preserved. This finding has important implications both for clinical practice and for memory research. In order to give the methodological background of the present situation in this field of research, this article deals, on the basis of recent experiments, with important methodological aspects of studies into perception and memory during general anesthesia.