Cool Brains Prevail in Study Of Effects of Anesthesia ISSUE: MARCH, 2009 The use of anesthesia on the developing brains of infants and young children has been linked to myriad behavioral and developmental effects. New research presented at the 2008 annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience (poster 355.6/BB1) suggests that cooling the brain before initiating anesthesia may prevent the death of nerve cells and avoid permanent damage to the developing brain.read more & comment