Figure 4.

Effect of anesthesia on single unit responses in somatosensory cortex of neonatal rabbits. Both isoflurane (a) and sevoflurane (b) anesthesia in air greatly decreased mean single unit firing from the awake state. No further change occurred with 80% oxygen. Asterisks indicate a significant change (p<0.05) relative to the previous stage. Following anesthesia, single unit activity recovered, though not to the initial level within the time recorded. The decrease in neuronal activity was greater under sevoflurane than isoflurane. Individual single units, sorted by increasing initial firing frequency, are also shown for isoflurane (c) and sevoflurane (d) at each stage of anesthesia exposure. A more consistent decrease was recorded across all single units under sevoflurane as compared to isoflurane.