1. In view of the large number of possible molecular targets of general anaesthetics, it is
necessary to have some criteria for judging which targets are important for producing
general anaesthesia and which are probably not. 2. We consider in detail two criteria:
sensitivity to clinically relevant concentrations of anaesthetics and stereoselectivity to
anaesthetic optical isomers. 3. The targets which currently emerge as most important belong
to an anaesthetic-sensitive superfamily of genetically related fast neurotransmitter-gated …