Fig. 2: VP Glu neurons regulate isoflurane anesthesia induction and emergence.

a Schematic diagram for virus injection into the VP and EEG recording in Vglut2-Cre mice. b Apparatus used for anesthesia with isoflurane in mice. c Time line for exposure to 0.6−1.2% (with 0.1% increment) isoflurane (15 min each concentration) until loss of righting reflex (LORR). d Time line for emergence from general anesthesia induced by 1.4% isoflurane and maintained by 1.4% isoflurane for 30 min. Emergence was assessed with recovery of righting reflex (RORR). e Dose–response curves (fitted) for isoflurane-induced LORR without (eYFP, ChR2) or with (eYFP-light, ChR2-light) blue light illumination in the VP of eYFP and ChR2 mice. f Dose–response curves (fitted) of isoflurane-induced LORR without (eYFP, NpHR) or with (eYFP-light, NpHR-light) yellow light illumination in the VP of eYFP and NpHR mice. g, h LORR time before and during blue and yellow light illumination in eYFP and ChR2, eYFP and NpHR mice, respectively. i, j Time to RORR before and during blue and yellow light illumination in eYFP and ChR2, eYFP and NpHR mice, respectively. k Motor scores after discontinuation of isoflurane. l, m Time courses and area under the curve (AUC) of the motor score recovery from isoflurane anesthesia in eYFP and ChR2 mice without (blank bars) or with blue light illumination (blue bars) in the VP. n, o Time courses and AUC of motor scores during recovery from isoflurane anesthesia in eYFP and NpHR mice without (blank bars) or with (yellow bars) yellow light illumination in the VP. Two-tailed paired t tests for (g−j, m, o). P-values are two-sided. n = 8 mice in each group. Mean ± SEM in (g−j, l−o). The source data are in the Supplementary Dataset, Source Data.xlsx. Statistical results are in Supplementary Table 1.