system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
How does general anaesthesia work? How can we take away all feeling and consciousness while keeping our breathing, heart beat and hormonal balance?

Along with everything else the brain does. It seems much more than just being asleep, more like a disconnection of the brain. So how can we remove some functions while leaving others?
gpt
Surprisingly for a lot of general anasthesia we don't know the exact mechanisms.

But in general nerves that send signals, like sense nerves and motor control nerves get suppressed, and inhibitory nerves are stimulated. Or more properly neural channels, your brain is made of neurons, not nerves after all.

As for how things work properly during general anasthesia the simple answer is they don't, but it's not usually enough to kill you in just a few hours. Breathing can slow or stop, heart rate can slow down, your digestive tract stops doing it's thing, etc. So longer time spent under increases the risk of problems.

But it sort of works because general anasthesia is dose dependent. It isn't just a hard off switch for your nerves. And -really important nerves- like the ones for breathing, and especially your heart are harder to turn off.