Recent studies showed that ultra-high-field MRI can be used to monitor in real time the action of anesthetic agents on brain blood oxygenation.
Our results demonstrate that administering certain anesthetics leads to an increase in the contrast observed between tissues and veins, and that not all anesthetics produce the same effect (http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0032645).
We are currently working on developing algorithms for the classification of clinically relevant anesthetics.