Neurophysiology of anaesthesia

Abstract

Methods of clinical neurophysiology are important in studying basic problems of anaesthesia such as the problem of the depth of anaesthesia, Some of the problems of clinical neurophysiology in awake subjects, such as the generators of somatosensory evoked potentials or cognitive evoked potentials, may be resolved by recording during EEG suppression. Finally, the mechanisms by which some anaesthetics produce epileptic phenomena (others or even the same agents may suppress epileptic activity) can only be resolved by EEG and EP recordings in human subjects, and by simultaneous recordings of intracellular and extracellular potentials in animals.