Maolin Qiu1, Ramachandran Ramani2,
R Todd Constable1,3
1Diagnostic Radiology, Yale
University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, United States; 2Anesthesia,
Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, United States; 3Biomedical
Engineering, Neurosurgery, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT,
United States
Preclinical studies suggest that propofol potentiates GABA activity, promotes GABA release, and inhibits Glutamate release. We employ both MRI and MRS to examine the anesthetic effects of propofol on regional CBF, intrinsic connectivity, and concentration or release of GABA, Glutamate and Glutamine in the normal human brain. Our preliminary data suggest the GABA receptor may be the most sensitive of all neurocepors and play an important role in propofol anesthesia. Propofol affects regional CBF in a drug-specific manner. Although CBF and ICC show similar spatial patterns, CBF is more responsive to changes in brains activity than ICC. The robustness of the ICC measure to external anesthetic state suggests that ICC reflect a fundamental and intrinsic property of functional brain organization.