General anesthetics block gap junctions across plants, Hydra, and humans

Gap junction blockers induce loss of consciousness in diverse organisms, supporting the bioelectric network hypothesis of the Self.

Source paper

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Technological Approach to Mind Everywhere: An Experimentally-Grounded Framework for Understanding Diverse Bodies and Minds

(2022) · Michael Levin

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Claims (1)

claim

General anesthesia works by blocking gap junctions, thereby dissolving the higher-level Self while leaving individual cells functional.
supports
Suggests that the unified self emerges from bioelectrical network coherence, which can be reversibly disrupted.

Communities (3)

community

Bioelectric memory & morphogenetic identity
members_of
Gap junctions and bioelectric signals encode body-plan and memory patterns across radical biological transformation.
Gap junctions & collective morphogenetic selfhood
members_of
Levin-framework linking gap junction bioelectricity to cancer, planaria, and scaling of cellular Selves.
Gap junctions as consciousness scaling mechanism
members_of
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 edge

Entities in the same semantic neighborhood but without a typed relation to this one — candidates for new edges or unrecognized duplicates.

General anesthetics are gap junction blockers, consistent with the role of gap junctions in scaling consciousness.claim0.892
Links anesthesia mechanism to the bioelectric binding model of higher-level Selves.
General anesthetics are gap junction blockers.finding0.891
Gap junction blockers function as anesthetics across plants, Hydra, and humans, consistent with GJs being critical for high-level Self maintenance.
Gap junction blockade as general anesthesiaconcept0.871
The observation that gap junction blockers anesthetize diverse organisms, supporting the hypothesis that bioelectric networks implement the unified Self.
General anesthesia works by blocking gap junctions, thereby disrupting the higher-level cognitive self.hypothesis0.871
Explains why anesthetics abolish consciousness in diverse organisms, including plants.
If gap junction-mediated bioelectric networks implement the unified Self, then gap junction blockers should function as general anesthetics across biology.hypothesis0.850
Already supported by data in plants, Hydra, and humans, but broader cross-species testing is predicted.
Gap junction blockade stochastically induces heads of other planarian species in genetically wild-type worms.finding0.795
Temporary disruption of gap junctions causes planaria to reconstruct heads appropriate to other species, revealing latent morphospace attractors.
Gap junction blockademethod0.765
Pharmacological blockade of gap junctional communication used to alter morphological pattern memory and scaling.
Gap junctional coupling partially erases informational boundaries between cells, enabling the scaling of the Self to tissue- and organ-level goals.claim0.764
Proposes a mechanism for how merging physiological states via gap junctions creates a new, larger cognitive agent.