Effects of Thiopental on Human Cerebral Evoked Responses

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Abstract
Averaged evoked cerebral somatosensory responses were obtained from 10 surgical patients before and during induction of thiopental "anesthesia." Pre-medication (second and atropine) produced some interference with late portions of the response. Thiopental quickly abolished these parts of the response and then slowed and reduced a still earlier deflection. All of these components of the response seem of extralemniscal origin. In contrast, the initial deflections of the response which apparently signal lemniscal activity remained essentially unaffected. Thus, some neural mechanisms of thiobarbiturate anesthesia in man seem quite like those previously found in animals: blockade of extralemniscal pathways without suppressionof activity in the lemniscal sensory systems.

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