Anesthesiology
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A comprehensive understanding of how anesthetics facilitate a reversible collapse of system-wide neuronal function requires measurement of neuronal activity with single-cell resolution. Multineuron recording was performed in Caenorhabditis elegans to measure neuronal activity at varying depths of anesthesia. The authors hypothesized that anesthesia is characterized by dyssynchrony between neurons resulting in a collapse of organized system states. ⋯ Anesthesia with isoflurane in C. elegans corresponds to high-frequency randomization of individual neuron activity, loss of coordination between neurons, and a collapse of system-wide functional organization.