Hypoxic turtles keep their cool

Several species of freshwater turtles spend the winter submerged in ice-covered lakes in a state of severe metabolic depression. It has been proposed that the hibernating turtles are comatose and entirely unresponsive, which raises the question of how they detect the arrival of spring and whether they respond to sensory information during hibernation. Using evoked potential studies in cold hypoxic turtles exposed to light and vibration, we show that hibernating turtles maintain neural responsiveness to light stimuli during prolonged hypoxia, while responsiveness to vibration is lost. This reveals a state of differential neural shutdown, in different sensory systems in the cold hypoxic turtle brain. In behavioral studies we show that turtles held for 14 days in hibernation increase locomotor activity in response to light or elevated temperatures, but not to vibration or increased oxygen. We conclude that hibernating freshwater turtles are not comatose, but remain vigilant during overwintering in cold hypoxia.