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Awareness and information processing in general anesthesia

University of Arazona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA

Lawrence J. Couture

University of Arazona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA

Although general anesthesia produces an apparent loss of consciousness, there is some reason to believe that, at least under some circumstances, surgical events may influence post-operative experience, thoughts and action as implicit memories. This paper summarizes a number of recent experiments in which adequately anesthetized patients show implicit, but not explicit, memory for surgical events. The evidence for implicit memory following general anesthesia is mixed, and the limiting conditions are not yet known. Practical and theoretical implications of these findings are explored.

Key Words: general anesthesia • memory • surgery • awareness • information processing

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