2024-03-29T05:45:40Z
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2022-12-13T02:21:15Z
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Understanding of anesthesia ? Why consciousness is essential for life and not based on genes
Balu?ka, Franti?ek
Yokawa, Ken
Mancuso, Stefano
Baverstock, Keith
anesthesia
anesthetics
consciousness
ether
ethylene
genes
lipids
membranes
plants
xenon
Anesthesia and consciousness represent 2 mysteries not only for biology but also for physics and philosophy. Although anesthesia was introduced to medicine more than 160 y ago, our understanding of how it works still remains a mystery. The most prevalent view is that the human brain and its neurons are necessary to impose the effects of anesthetics. However, the fact is that all life can be anesthesized. Numerous theories have been generated trying to explain the major impact of anesthetics on our human-specific consciousness; switching it off so rapidly, but no single theory resolves this enduring mystery. The speed of anesthetic actions precludes any direct involvement of genes. Lipid bilayers, cellular membranes, and critical proteins emerge as the most probable primary targets of anesthetics. Recent findings suggest, rather surprisingly, that physical forces underlie both the anesthetic actions on living organisms as well as on consciousness in general.
journal article
2016
application/pdf
Communicative & Integrative Biology
6
9
e1238118
Communicative & Integrative Biology
1942-0889
https://kitami-it.repo.nii.ac.jp/record/8854/files/COMMUNICATIVE & INTEGRATIVE BIOLOGY_2016,9(6),e1238118.pdf
eng
https://doi.org/10.1080/19420889.2016.1238118
c 2016 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis.c Franti?ek Balu?ka, Ken Yokawa, Stefano Mancuso, and Keith Baverstock. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/), which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The moral rights of the named author(s) have been asserted.
open access