General anesthesia in early infancy accelerates visual cortical development
- Laurel J. Gabard-Durnam
- Sarah A. McCormick
- Ellen Underwood
- Alice Tao
- Isabelle Kim
- Siobhan Coffman
- Lindsay Benster
- Maria Graziano
- Charles A. Nelson
- Charles B. Berde
- Laura Cornelissen
- Takao K. Hensch
2025-07-28
How human brain function is established through protracted trajectories of development is not yet fully understood. Maturation of γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) circuits drives critical periods of cortical development in animal models. Whether early functional inhibition similarly impacts the pace of human brain development remains unknown. Here, in a longitudinal study of 93 infants across a range of repeated exposures to general anesthesia shortly after birth, we observed a dramatically accelerated development of visual evoked potential (VEP) waveforms (but not their latency) consistent with a conserved biological mechanism across species. Such sequelae of prolonged GABA-active anesthesia in the first half year after birth may particularly impact those at-risk of altered excitatory–inhibitory circuit balance.