Estimating transition point of anesthetic-induced loss of consciousness in mice by detecting motion in response to forced movement.

To characterize transition periods of entrance to and emergence from anesthetic-induced unconsciousness in terms of thalamocortical neural activity, we devised a new method estimating a transition point of anesthetic-induced loss of consciousness. The method continuously monitors an animal's head motion in response to forced movement on treadmill and uses the motion signals as a criterion of the transition. Anesthetics were administered via previously secured intraperitoneal injection route in order not to disturb the animal's spontaneous movement. Resulting signals from the motion detector could discriminate the points of entrance into and emergence from the anesthetic-induced unconsciousness with resolution corresponding to the sampling frequency. This method makes it possible to track the anesthetic transition period continuously without contaminating EEGs and LFPs.