Table 2.

Brain regions in which anesthesia-induced neurodegeneration was most heavily concentrated

Brain regionSeverity (fold increase)
Medial septal nucleus27
Diagonal band of Broca29
Nucleus accumbens33
Rostral caudate nucleus26
Globus pallidus43
Amygdaloid nuclei
 Basolateral22
 Medial25
 Cortical23
Thalamic nuclei
 Paraventricular34
 Anterodorsal28
 Anteroventral57
 Anteromedial51
 Laterodorsal68
 Reuniens34
 Parafascicularis45
Hippocampus, rostral CA121
Subiculum58
Cingulate cortex32
Retrosplenial cortex53
Neocortex (layers II and IV)
 Frontal18
 Parietal34
 Temporal22
 Occipital35
Hypothalamus
 Anterior22
 Ventromedial34
 Dorsomedial21
Mammillary complex33
  • Severity is expressed as the fold increase (i.e., how many times greater the density of degenerating neurons was in the experimental brain compared with the baseline rate of degeneration in the same region of control brain).