Narcotic effects produced by nitrous oxide and hyperbaric nitrogen narcosis in rats performing a fixed-ratio test

Narcosis is a neurological syndrome that reduces capacities of divers. Although this phenomenon appeared at the end of 19th century, the mechanisms are not yet elucidated. The greatest technical problem is that these studies are carried out under hyperbaric conditions. Nitrous oxide is known to be an inducer of narcosis, at atmospheric pressure. The aim of this study is to compare two narcotic environments; a normobaric narcosis under several percentages of nitrous oxide, and an hyperbaric narcosis under 0.9 MPa of Nitrox (N2O2 mixture). This comparison is realized on rats submitted to a fixed-ratio 15 test, in which they have to press a lever to get rewarded. The results show significant performances decreases: the number of pressed lever are reduced by 50% under Nitrox and by 70% under N2O. Nitrous oxide could be considered as a normobaric model of hyperbaric narcosis.