5 ms·

Could a Dose of Ether Contain the Secret to Consciousness?

20 points by rfreytag 17y ago

davi 17y ago
article focuses on differential activity of thalumus under anesthetic; this immediately brings to mind Francis Crick's searchlight hypothesis: http://www.pnas.org/content/81/14/4586.abstract http://www.pnas.org/content/81/14/4586.abstract
RiderOfGiraffes 17y ago
Single page: http://discovermagazine.com/2009/apr/16-could-dose-ether-contain-secret-consciousness/article_print http://discovermagazine.com/2009/apr/16-could-dose-ether-con... A friend of a friend is an extremely senior anaesthetist. Extremely senior. When asked what she does for a living she looks very serious and says "I poison people until they're nearly dead, and keep them that way for hours. Then I bring them back to life." Cool trick.
swombat 17y ago
Fascinating. As someone who's been under full anesthesia twice, I can definitely relate to the knotted-stomach feeling... It always seems fine from a distance, but when you're actually sitting in the waiting room or lying on your bed in the corridor, waiting to be put to sleep, it's truly a terrifying experience. "Someone will put me to sleep now and there's a small chance I may not wake up" is what usually goes through my head. It gives me the shivers to think about it even now. And then you wake up and feel immensely drowsy and this pain thing keeps nagging at the edge of your consciousness (but that's ok, you can get an extra morphine shot and make it go away). On the whole, I think the conclusion has to be: don't get yourself in situations which will require you to be operated (both of my surgeries were caused by things I had done).
- torpor 17y ago
  I've been in surgery a couple times, and I don't remember the knotted-stomach feeling, or any pain either, really, other than in the area where I was cut up .. What I do remember is how quickly everything went by .. apparently my operation was 2 hours long, but I remember it going "bink" like that, and I was being wheeled through the hospital in what seemed like a lightning flash of time. Also, the nurses were hot. But yeah, I'm with you on the don't-get-yourself-in-surgery-situations .. also, gunshot wounds: not funny.
- mynameishere 17y ago
  Hmm. They're supposed to dose you with diazepam first.
  - swombat 17y ago
    They did dose me with some stuff to calm me down... but I was still quite worried (not beyond control or anything).
- Arun2009 17y ago
  I don't get it. Why does the possibility that you may not wake up be terrifying? If you're dead, you're dead. No less dead than a dead chicken. A peaceful death while you're unconscious is one of the nicer gifts a human can get in life. That is not to say you have to consciously injure yourself, of course.

20 points by rfreytag 17y ago

davi 17y ago

article focuses on differential activity of thalumus under anesthetic; this immediately brings to mind Francis Crick's searchlight hypothesis: http://www.pnas.org/content/81/14/4586.abstract http://www.pnas.org/content/81/14/4586.abstract

RiderOfGiraffes 17y ago

Single page: http://discovermagazine.com/2009/apr/16-could-dose-ether-contain-secret-consciousness/article_print http://discovermagazine.com/2009/apr/16-could-dose-ether-con... A friend of a friend is an extremely senior anaesthetist. Extremely senior. When asked what she does for a living she looks very serious and says "I poison people until they're nearly dead, and keep them that way for hours. Then I bring them back to life." Cool trick.

swombat 17y ago

Fascinating. As someone who's been under full anesthesia twice, I can definitely relate to the knotted-stomach feeling... It always seems fine from a distance, but when you're actually sitting in the waiting room or lying on your bed in the corridor, waiting to be put to sleep, it's truly a terrifying experience. "Someone will put me to sleep now and there's a small chance I may not wake up" is what usually goes through my head. It gives me the shivers to think about it even now. And then you wake up and feel immensely drowsy and this pain thing keeps nagging at the edge of your consciousness (but that's ok, you can get an extra morphine shot and make it go away). On the whole, I think the conclusion has to be: don't get yourself in situations which will require you to be operated (both of my surgeries were caused by things I had done).

torpor 17y ago
I've been in surgery a couple times, and I don't remember the knotted-stomach feeling, or any pain either, really, other than in the area where I was cut up .. What I do remember is how quickly everything went by .. apparently my operation was 2 hours long, but I remember it going "bink" like that, and I was being wheeled through the hospital in what seemed like a lightning flash of time. Also, the nurses were hot. But yeah, I'm with you on the don't-get-yourself-in-surgery-situations .. also, gunshot wounds: not funny.
mynameishere 17y ago
Hmm. They're supposed to dose you with diazepam first.
- swombat 17y ago
  They did dose me with some stuff to calm me down... but I was still quite worried (not beyond control or anything).
Arun2009 17y ago
I don't get it. Why does the possibility that you may not wake up be terrifying? If you're dead, you're dead. No less dead than a dead chicken. A peaceful death while you're unconscious is one of the nicer gifts a human can get in life. That is not to say you have to consciously injure yourself, of course.