 An early theory , the Meyer @-@ Overton hypothesis , suggested that narcosis happens when the gas penetrates the lipids of the brain 's nerve cells , causing direct mechanical interference with the transmission of signals from one nerve cell to another . More recently , specific types of chemically gated receptors in nerve cells have been identified as being involved with anesthesia and narcosis . However , the basic and most general underlying idea , that nerve transmission is altered in many diffuse areas of the brain as a result of gas molecules dissolved in the nerve cells ' fatty membranes , remains largely unchallenged . 
