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CO 2 : A Possible Missing Link Between Regional Cortical Metabolism and Transcephalic Direct Current Potentials
Author(s) -
Cowen Murray A.
Publication year - 1975
Publication title -
psychophysiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.661
H-Index - 156
eISSN - 1469-8986
pISSN - 0048-5772
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-8986.1975.tb00077.x
Subject(s) - scalp , cortex (anatomy) , neuroscience , psychology , chemistry , cerebral cortex , metabolism , current (fluid) , anatomy , biology , biochemistry , physics , thermodynamics
Certain slowly changing potentials measured on the surface of the scalp (TCDC potentials) have been shown to correlate significantly with a number of psychological and psychiatric parameters. It has been shown that they are related to metabolism of the subjacent cerebral cortex. The present work investigates the possibility that the potentials are related to brain CO 2 production in a series of three groups of studies. In the first studies rat brain to. metabolism is modulated by a variety of internal carotid injections and the concomitant TCDC effects are observed. In the second set of studies scalp CO 2 is modulated by a series of external carotid injections and the associated TCDC effects noted. Finally biophysical analysis shows that electrogenic CO 2 reactions in the scalp are quantitatively in agreement with empirically measured TCDC voltage, current, and resistance measures, and that the cortex is the most likely source for most of the CO 2 involved in the voltage generation.