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Recording Brain Electromagnetic Activity During the Administration of the Gaseous Anesthetic Agents Xenon and Nitrous Oxide in Healthy Volunteers
Published on: January 13, 2018
Psychomotor function during mild narcosis induced by subanesthetic level of nitrous oxide: individual susceptibility
Miroljub Jakovljević1, Gaj Vidmar, Igor B Mekjavic
1International Postgraduate School Jozef Stefan, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Objective:
We investigated the effect of narcosis induced by subanesthetic concentrations of nitrous oxide (N2O), a behavioral analogue for hyperbaric nitrogen, on psychomotor performance. In particular, we assessed individual susceptibility to narcosis.
Methods:
The participants were 12 female and 12 male undergraduate students. Psychomotor assessment was conducted with a computerized Visual Simple Reaction Time (VSRT) test, and Trail Making Tests Part A (TMTA) and Part B (TMT-B). The tests were conducted on two separate occasions in the following order: VSRT, TMT-A, TMT-B. On the first occasion participants conducted the tests breathing room air (air trial), and during the second test they conducted the tests while breathing a normoxic mixture containing 30% N2O (N2O trial).
Results:
Males had significantly (p = 0.036) shorter VSRT in the air trials. There was no effect of gender on psychomotor performance in the N2O trials. Overall, mean performance in the N2O trials degraded significantly (p = 0.004) only in VSRT. Performance of individual participants exhibited different and inconsistent direction of change in the N2O trials.
Conclusion:
N2O-induced alterations in psychomotor function are primarily dependent on individual susceptibility to narcosis (i.e., concentration threshold).
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