Despite the widespread use of general anesthesia, a growing body of research suggests that anesthesia exposure early in life may be associated with acute neurotoxicity and lasting behavioral changes. To better evaluate the risk posed by early life anesthesia on cognitive development, infant rhesus monkeys were exposed to an anesthesia regimen previously shown to be neurotoxic and their cognitive development was subsequently measured using a translational operant test battery. On postnatal day 5 or 6, animals were exposed to 8 h of isoflurane (n = 6, 1% isoflurane in a vehicle gas of 70% nitrous oxide and 30% oxygen) or a control condition (n = 8). Starting at 7 months of age, the monkeys were continuously trained and assessed on the NCTR Operant Test Battery (OTB). The OTB consists of cognitive tests which also exist in near identical forms for use in rats and humans, and includes tests of learning, memory, color discrimination, and motivation. Monkeys previously exposed to anesthesia showed a clear decrease in responding in a measure of motivation, as well as a lower response rate in a learning task. These data further support the hypothesis that prolonged anesthesia early in life may increase the risk of developing cognitive impairments later in life.

尽管广泛使用全身麻醉，但越来越多的研究表明，生命早期接触麻醉可能与急性神经毒性和持久的行为改变有关。为了更好地评估生命早期麻醉对认知发展的风险，将婴儿恒河猴暴露于先前证明具有神经毒性的麻醉方案，随后使用翻译操作测试电池对它们的认知发展进行测量。在出生后的第5或6天，将动物暴露于8小时的异氟烷中（n = 6，在70％一氧化二氮和30％氧气的车用气体中1％的异氟烷​​）或对照组（n = 8）。从7个月大开始，在NCTR操作测试电池（OTB）上对猴子进行持续训练和评估。OTB由认知测试组成，也以几乎相同的形式存在于大鼠和人类中，并且包括学习，记忆，颜色歧视和动机测试。先前接触过麻醉的猴子在动机方面表现​​出明显的反应下降，并且在学习任务中反应率较低。这些数据进一步支持了这样的假设，即生命早期的长时间麻醉可能会增加生命后期出现认知障碍的风险。