Among human cognitive functions, memory is the most central and important brain function. The brain is directly in charge of memory in the limbic system of the cortex, in which the amygdala and hippocampus are closely related to memory. The temporal lobe, which is peripheral to the hippocampus, is also involved in memory. It has been shown that certain morphological and functional changes in synapses can occur during memory, i.e., synaptic plasticity changes. Plastic synapses are the basic sites of information transmission and storage and are the neural basis for the process of learning and memory that can continue in humans from early childhood, through adulthood to old age. The neural basis of short-term memory is simply an electrical change, a change in the activity of working neurons that stores information in the form of electrical currents, and there is an enhancement and weakening of synaptic transmission for learning and memory processes. Long-term memory, on the other hand, needs to rise to biochemical and morphological changes, first exchanging stimuli from the outside world for electrical signals, and then receiving them in the form of biochemical changes to form new neural circuits. Thus associated with certain permanent functional and structural changes in the brain, new mRNA and protein molecules need to be synthesized. Changes in the ratio of RNA bases after learning in rats are evidence that memory is stored on nucleic acid molecules. Protein synthesis inhibitors affect the consolidation of memory after learning. Anesthesia, hypoxia, and hypothermia stop nerve cell activity, but generally affect only short-term memory not long-term memory. So far, there are no systematic investigations in young and middle-aged patients and in children, and it is unknown whether prolonged or repeated use of anesthetics has lasting effects on intellectual development and personality formation in pediatric patients. However, there is evidence that isoflurane, at clinically applied concentrations, can eliminate morphological changes in neuronal dendritic spines by blocking the polymerization of myofibrillar proteins, so it is thought that inhaled anesthetics can affect the morphological plasticity of excitatory synapses in the brain. Scholars believe that anesthesia, hypoxia, and hypothermia can stop nerve cell activity, but generally speaking, they only affect short-term memory but not long-term memory. The above are the results of experiments on rodents. It has not been confirmed that general anesthesia has effects on learning, memory, and cognitive functions in primates and humans.