Different temporal gradients of retrograde amnesia produced by carbon dioxide anesthesia and electroconvulsive shock.

Abstract
Temporal gradients of amnesic effects from different doses of CO2 [carbon dioxide] were determined for rats and mice and compared with one obtained in a comparable previous study using electroconvulsive shock (ECS) as the amnesic agent. At 25-sec. exposure to CO2, rats showed significant retrograde amnesia (RA) when treatment was delayed up to 4 min. after punishment, but not after 5, while ECS produced amnesia up to 30 sec. but not after 1 min. Tests using shorter exposures to CO2 and stronger current of ECS showed that this difference could not be accounted for by intensity of treatment. This and other differences suggest that the 2 treatments may produce RA via different mechanisms.

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