A neuroscience review

Real brain research, made readable.

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An anesthetist holds a mask over a patient's face at the start of anesthesia, with the anesthesia machine and vital-signs monitors beside them in an operating room
First principles · August 26, 2026 · 11 min read

Where you go under anesthesia

Anesthesia does not switch your brain off, it dissolves the conversation between its parts, and you can watch consciousness leave on a monitor. What actually happens when you go under, and why the person comes back.

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Spin them, click any part to see what it does, then break a piece to watch what goes wrong and repair it.

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A detailed three-dimensional anatomical brain The brain A stylized three-dimensional neuron with dendrites, a cell body, a myelinated axon and terminals The neuron A stylized three-dimensional synapse with a presynaptic terminal, vesicles, the gap, and receptors The synapse

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