Journal of neural engineering
April 11, 2025
Rick Evertz, Andria Pelentritou, John Cormack et al.
Resting EEG activity typically resembles a filtered random process, and alpha band (8-13 Hz) oscillations can be modeled as independent, stochastically driven relaxation oscillators. This study tested whether changes in alpha band power and spectral slope during anesthesia with xenon and nitrous oxide—both NMDA receptor antagonists—could be explained by alterations in the distribution of alpha band damping rates. In participants receiving step-level increases of xenon (n=24) or nitrous oxide (n=20), both agents produced dose-dependent reductions in alpha power and spectral slope (15-40 Hz), accounted for by increased mean alpha band damping.
Clinical neurophysiology : official journal of the International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology
February 1, 2013
Brett L Foster, David T J Liley
Nitrous oxide reduces resting total brain wave power, especially delta waves at frontal-vertex sites, in healthy men. After inhalation stops, frontal theta power increases above baseline. Unlike other anesthetics such as propofol and sevoflurane, nitrous oxide does not shift slow wave activity to the front of the brain, challenging a single mechanism for loss of consciousness based on EEG patterns.
PloS one
January 1, 2013
Levin Kuhlmann, Brett L Foster, David T J Liley
Nitrous oxide (N2O), an NMDA receptor antagonist, reduces parietal network functional connectivity by about 50% and frontal network connectivity by about 10%, as measured by EEG. Parietal reductions were detected only with a surface Laplacian derivation, indicating superficial cortical networks are most affected, while frontal reductions were detected with a common-reference derivation, suggesting widespread perturbations. These findings support the idea that different anesthetic agents may produce similar final network changes underlying reduced consciousness.