Brain under anesthesia: Focus on nociception and attention network

Surgeries are situations that endanger bodily integrity. The concept expressed by the term coined by Sherrington encompasses the perception of noxious stimuli and the organization of response to them. To understand the condition of the brain in which anesthesia is performed it is important to review new results of the neurophysiology of nociception. This review outlines the effects of anesthesia on the functioning of the brain. The neural correlations of the common mechanism of action of various anesthetics, i.e., induction of loss of consciousness (LOC), are also described. LOC models only the induction of anesthesia but, to maintain anesthesia, further continuous suppression of nociception is necessary. Understanding all these processes can help us to expand our knowledge of the effect of anesthesia on the brain during surgery.