Carbon Monoxide and Phenobarbitone: A Comparison of Effects on Auditory Flutter Fusion Threshold and Critical Flicker Fusion Threshold

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Abstract
In a small series of experiments, eight healthy subjects breathed either air alone or a mixture of air and carbon monoxide designed to raise carboxyhaemoglobin saturations to approximately 10 per cent. Neither subjects nor operators knew which gas was administered, and the effects of the exposures on auditory flutter fusion thresholds and critical flicker fusion thresholds was assessed during a period of 6 hours after the end of the exposure. There was no evidence of any depressant effect of carbon monoxide on the thresholds: the auditory flutter fusion threshold increased a little with carbon monoxide. To check the response of the subjects to a drug that had already been tested, the experiments were repeated, with oral administration of phenobarbitone and a placebo. For the group as a whole there was a depressant effect of phenobarbitone on both of the thresholds, as expected.