Over millions of infants in our country have surgery under general anesthesia every year. However, general anesthetics may bring about some structure and functional changes in the rapidly developmental brain of infants, which is in the crucial stage of neural development. This review summarizes the latest advances of the latest clinical trials about the effects of general anesthesia on long⁃term neuropsychological deficits of infants, and the underlying mechanisms of neurotoxicity from basic research, which is closely related to the results of clinical research. Nevertheless, the mechanism needs further research to provide a safer and more reasonable guidance in the administration of general anesthetics to infants.