Effect of General Anesthesia in Infancy on Long-Term Recognition Memory in Humans and Rats.

Stratmann G et al

Neuropsychopharmacology. 2014 Jun 9.

The authors compared twenty eight children ages 6-11 who had undergone a procedure requiring general anesthesia before age 1 to twenty eight age- and gender-matched children who had not undergone anesthesia.

 Recollection and familiarity were assessed in an object recognition memory test using receiver operator characteristic analysis. In addition, IQ and Child Behavior Checklist scores were assessed.

 In parallel, thirty three 7-day old rats were randomized to receive anesthesia or sham anesthesia. Over ten months, recollection and familiarity were assessed using an odor recognition test.

They found that anesthetized children had significantly lower recollection scores and were impaired at recollecting associative information compared to controls. Familiarity, IQ, and Child Behavior Checklist scores were not different between groups.

In rats, anesthetized subjects had significantly lower recollection scores than controls while familiarity was unaffected. Rats that had undergone tissue injury during anesthesia had similar recollection indices as rats that had been anesthetized without tissue injury.

These findings suggest that general anesthesia in infancy impairs recollection later in life in humans and rats. In rats, this effect is independent of underlying disease or tissue injury.