Anaesthesia
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Surgical procedures that involve a local anaesthetic block are often accompanied by light general anaesthesia. It is possible that under these circumstances, the patients are more likely to register auditory events while apparently unconscious. Two groups of children were exposed to auditory stimuli during surgery; one group received a lighter level of anaesthesia than the other. ⋯ The light anaesthesia group retained more items than did the other two groups but this difference was significant (p less than 0.05) only when compared with the other experimental group. This is not very strong evidence of auditory registration, but a greater effect might be found with exposure to emotionally significant material. It is suggested that patients should be protected from unfortunate theatre conversation.