This Research Topic is part of the General anesthesia: from theory to experiments series.
General anesthesia: from theory to experimentsNeuromodulation attracts increasing attention in today’s pre-clinical and clinical practice. It includes diverse medical procedures such as neurostimulation, general anesthesia, or drug treatments for mental disorders. These procedures are known to affect and even control the patient’s state of consciousness. For instance, neurostimulation can encompass electric or magnetic stimulation (either intracranially or transcranially such as DBS, TES, and TMS) or perceptual stimulation (visual or auditory) and may modulate attention or sleep. Stimulations generated externally by electronic devices are known as Digital Drugs. Conversely, chemical and thus non-digital drugs are important elements in medical treatment of, e.g. mental disorders, as seen in the use of anxiolytic and antidepressant medication to modulate the mood and thus contents of consciousness. Moreover, they serve as general anesthetics in todays' hospital practice, reversibly impairing the level of consciousness to allow surgery to occur. Interestingly, in certain cases, their neural actions resemble Digital Drug actions, although their origin and neurophysiological action is different. By virtue of both their similarity and difference to Digital Drugs, we call them Analogue Drugs. Well-known pairs of Digital and Analogue Drugs are visual flicker and psychedelic drugs (which both induce hallucinations) and isochronic auditory beats and anesthetics (with both inducing sedation).
This Research Topic aims to address recent theoretical and experimental advances in neuromodulation of consciousness by Digital and Analogue Drugs. The theoretical and experimental studies represent a good overview of the current state of research in the respective research branch and may provide a deeper insight into the corresponding underlying neural action. Each article in this issue focuses on a specific current research topic in either research branch or compares both; the articles also aim to introduce the respective topic in a pedagogical way. This issue attempts to cover diverse types of (but not limited to) neurostimulation, general anesthesia, and drug treatment of mental disorders. The introductory style of the papers facilitates the reader to understand the background of the research aspect and even allows readers not familiar with the respective topic to gain entry to the research domain. Hence the Research Topic aims to provide both an overview of the current state of the art and a good introduction for new researchers in the field.
This Research Topic is part of the General anesthesia: from theory to experiments series.
General anesthesia: from theory to experimentsNeuromodulation attracts increasing attention in today’s pre-clinical and clinical practice. It includes diverse medical procedures such as neurostimulation, general anesthesia, or drug treatments for mental disorders. These procedures are known to affect and even control the patient’s state of consciousness. For instance, neurostimulation can encompass electric or magnetic stimulation (either intracranially or transcranially such as DBS, TES, and TMS) or perceptual stimulation (visual or auditory) and may modulate attention or sleep. Stimulations generated externally by electronic devices are known as Digital Drugs. Conversely, chemical and thus non-digital drugs are important elements in medical treatment of, e.g. mental disorders, as seen in the use of anxiolytic and antidepressant medication to modulate the mood and thus contents of consciousness. Moreover, they serve as general anesthetics in todays' hospital practice, reversibly impairing the level of consciousness to allow surgery to occur. Interestingly, in certain cases, their neural actions resemble Digital Drug actions, although their origin and neurophysiological action is different. By virtue of both their similarity and difference to Digital Drugs, we call them Analogue Drugs. Well-known pairs of Digital and Analogue Drugs are visual flicker and psychedelic drugs (which both induce hallucinations) and isochronic auditory beats and anesthetics (with both inducing sedation).
This Research Topic aims to address recent theoretical and experimental advances in neuromodulation of consciousness by Digital and Analogue Drugs. The theoretical and experimental studies represent a good overview of the current state of research in the respective research branch and may provide a deeper insight into the corresponding underlying neural action. Each article in this issue focuses on a specific current research topic in either research branch or compares both; the articles also aim to introduce the respective topic in a pedagogical way. This issue attempts to cover diverse types of (but not limited to) neurostimulation, general anesthesia, and drug treatment of mental disorders. The introductory style of the papers facilitates the reader to understand the background of the research aspect and even allows readers not familiar with the respective topic to gain entry to the research domain. Hence the Research Topic aims to provide both an overview of the current state of the art and a good introduction for new researchers in the field.