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claim:general-anesthetics-are-gap-junction-blockers-consistent-with-the-role-of-gap-junctions-in-scaling-consciousnessGeneral anesthetics are gap junction blockers, consistent with the role of gap junctions in scaling consciousness.
Links anesthesia mechanism to the bioelectric binding model of higher-level Selves.
Source paper
extracted_from(2022) · Michael Levin
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Findings (1)
finding
- Gap junction blockers function as anesthetics across plants, Hydra, and humans, consistent with GJs being critical for high-level Self maintenance.
Communities (3)
community
- Gap junctions and bioelectric signals encode body-plan and memory patterns across radical biological transformation.
- Levin-framework linking gap junction bioelectricity to cancer, planaria, and scaling of cellular Selves.
- Explores how gap junction coupling enables multicellular self-organization and consciousness across species, with anesthetics as empirical probes of this bioelectric integration.
Related by similarity (8)
cosine ≥ 0.65 · no typed edgeEntities in the same semantic neighborhood but without a typed relation to this one — candidates for new edges or unrecognized duplicates.
- General anesthesia works by blocking gap junctions, thereby disrupting the higher-level cognitive self.hypothesis0.893Explains why anesthetics abolish consciousness in diverse organisms, including plants.
- Gap junction blockers induce loss of consciousness in diverse organisms, supporting the bioelectric network hypothesis of the Self.
- Suggests that the unified self emerges from bioelectrical network coherence, which can be reversibly disrupted.
- The observation that gap junction blockers anesthetize diverse organisms, supporting the hypothesis that bioelectric networks implement the unified Self.
- Already supported by data in plants, Hydra, and humans, but broader cross-species testing is predicted.
- Explains the biological mechanism for cognitive scaling.
- Temporary disruption of gap junctions causes planaria to reconstruct heads appropriate to other species, revealing latent morphospace attractors.
- Proposes a mechanism for how merging physiological states via gap junctions creates a new, larger cognitive agent.
Cross-corpus bridges (1)
same_concept_as · Nomic cosineExternal markdown files that talk about the same concept as this entity.
- aboutblank_kbWhat can anesthesia reveal about the neural basis of consciousness?questions/what-can-anesthesia-reveal-about-the-neural-basis.md0.827
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cosine ≥ 0.90Other entities that say roughly the same thing. May be merge candidates or independent restatements across papers.