Visual/vestibular effects of inert gas narcosis

Divers breathing compressed air at depths beyond 30 m experience a type of behavioural impairment known as inert gas narcosis. This condition degrades performance on a wide range of tasks and has the potential to compromise safety. Symptoms associated with narcosis include slowed response time, amnesia, and euphoria. Studies have also found disturbances to mechanisms regulating ocular control in response to vestibular stimulation; however, these experiments have been limited to very low frequency head movement (0·2 Hz). Thus, to further examine the effects of narcosis on visual/vestibular mechanisms, the vestibular ocular reflex (VOR) was assessed across a range of higher frequencies more representative of natural head movement (2·0-4·7 Hz). Seven subjects were tested prior to, during and after exposure to narcosis which was induced using 30% nitrous oxide. Standard room air was breathed as a control. The results indicated that narcosis decreased the velocity of compensatory eye movements in response to h...