Anesthetics, Cells, and Consciousness
January 18, 2022

Anesthesia reaches deep into living machinery, not only into a brain-level abstraction. Research connected here reports that propofol impairs kinesin processivity, linking a change in consciousness to molecular transport inside cells.

Brian Greenforest develops that mechanism into a larger biological hypothesis: individual cells participate in sentience, while the brain coordinates the immense cellular ensemble that forms a person.

From Molecular Motors to the Whole Organism

Kinesin motors carry cargo along microtubules and support the active internal organization of cells. A compound that changes their movement offers a concrete bridge between molecular action, cellular behavior, and organism-level loss of consciousness.

The cellular lens expands the question beyond neurons alone. It asks how anesthesia affects many living cell types and how their coordinated activity contributes to the body’s unified experience.

Study Consciousness Across Scales

The resulting research program connects cell biology, intracellular transport, neural coordination, hierarchy, and participation. It treats the body as an organized society of living units whose relationships matter.

Cell biologists, anesthesiologists, and consciousness researchers can test this connection across organisms and scales. Follow the molecular mechanism, compare cell responses, and build a richer account of sentient life.

Read the Cell Biology of Anesthesia

The linked studies follow anesthetic action from single cells to kinesin transport, giving the consciousness argument a concrete biological mechanism.

The Biology of General Anesthesia from Paramecium to Primate · Common general anesthetic propofol impairs kinesin processivity · https://www.cell.com/current-biology/pdf/S0960-9822(19)31262-X.pdf

Originally posted on LinkedIn

Brian Greenforest · (2022-01-18 05:16:56 UTC)

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Anesthetics act on each individual cell, stopping the kinesin motors => our consciousness is bound to sentient beings, which are each and individual living cell. There is no emergence. Brain is the computer to control our super complex ensemble of our bodies. Perhaps you have only one most important cell who's in charge? But it doesn't matter. Hierarchy, hard work, participation of everyone is important to be who we are---both inside of our bodies---an outside in our societies <3 https://lnkd.in/gmVFNDE6