Theoretical analysis reveals quantum decoherence of phosphorus-31 nuclear spins across living organisms, suggesting a universal physical mechanism for anesthesia beyond classical receptors.
General anesthetics act universally across all domains of life, temporarily suspending biological activity even in single-celled organisms and plants that lack neural receptors or synaptic networks. This universal phenomenon across all life forms cannot be explained solely by conventional classical receptor theories, such as binding to GABA receptors. In this paper, focusing on the nuclear spin isotope effect observed in the anesthetic action of the noble gas xenon (Xe), we propose a physical model wherein the essence of anesthesia is not chemical receptor inhibition, but rather the induction of quantum decoherence in the 31P (phosphorus) nuclear spin system maintained within intracellular microenvironments.
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