Background　Inhalational anesthetics have been widely used in clinical anesthesia for a wide range of surgeries. But the mechanism of anesthetic actions is still not clear. Gap junctions （GJ） are important ways of information delivery among mediate cells in nervous system. Perhaps it is one of the molecular sites of inhalational anesthetic action.　Objective　The purpose of this article is to investigate whether GJ and GJ mediated intercellular communication may participate in the mechanism of action of inhalational anesthetics or not.　Content　The mechanism of action of inhalational anesthetics has been analyzed. Moreover， the structure， distribution and function of GJ and its relationship with inhalational anesthetics in the central nervous system were also described.　Trend　The research about GJ and the intercellular communication mediated by GJ is a new direction to explore the anesthetic mechanism.