Understanding the effects of anesthetic agents on the EEG through neural field theory

Foster, B. L., Bojak, I. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1765-3502 and Liley, D. T. J. (2011) Understanding the effects of anesthetic agents on the EEG through neural field theory. In: 33rd Annual International Conference of the IEEE EMBS, 30 Aug - 03 Sep 2011, Boston, Massachusetts, pp. 4709-4712.

Abstract/Summary

Anesthetic and analgesic agents act through a diverse range of pharmacological mechanisms. Existing empirical data clearly shows that such "microscopic" pharmacological diversity is reflected in their "macroscopic" effects on the human electroencephalogram (EEG). Based on a detailed mesoscopic neural field model we theoretically posit that anesthetic induced EEG activity is due to selective parametric changes in synaptic efficacy and dynamics. Specifically, on the basis of physiologically constrained modeling, it is speculated that the selective modification of inhibitory or excitatory synaptic activity may differentially effect the EEG spectrum. Such results emphasize the importance of neural field theories of brain electrical activity for elucidating the principles whereby pharmacological agents effect the EEG. Such insights will contribute to improved methods for monitoring depth of anesthesia using the EEG.