title: Effects of nitrous oxide inhalation on brain potentials evoked by auditory and noxious dental stimulation.
abstract: 1. Effects of inhaling nitrous oxide in oxygen were observed in subjects undergoing noxious dental (N=10) or nonnoxious auditory (N=10) stimulation. Evoked potentials (EPs), 100-500 msec poststimulus, were recorded at vertex, and peak-to-peak amplitudes as well as peak latencies were quantified. 2. Both dental and auditory EPs were reduced by 33% nitrous oxide in oxygen concentration and a dose-related effect was seen in the auditory modality when the concentration was increased to 50%. 3. These observations demonstrate that nitrous oxide inhalation has a broad impact on neurophysiological function in addition to behaviorally determined analgesia.
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000328:Adult; D001143:Arousal / Q000187:drug effects; D001288:Attention / Q000187:drug effects; D001921:Brain / Q000187:drug effects*; D003782:Dental Pulp / Q000294:innervation*; D004558:Electric Stimulation; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005072:Evoked Potentials, Auditory / Q000187:drug effects*; D005073:Evoked Potentials, Somatosensory / Q000187:drug effects*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009609:Nitrous Oxide / Q000494:pharmacology*; D009619:Nociceptors / Q000187:drug effects*
chemical_list: D009609:Nitrous Oxide