Comparative physiology of the high-pressure neurological syndrome--compression rate effects.

The effect of compression rate on onset of high-pressure convulsions has been studied in 14 vertebrate species, as well as in 10 mouse strains and 4 rat strains. Compression rate effects were observed in 9 of the 14 species. They appear to be independent of exposure temperature, correlate only very loosely with phylogenetic position, and appear to reflect species-specific compensatory mechanisms grafted onto an underlying convulsion-producing effect of high hydrostatic pressure. Five vertebrate species distributed among three of the four classes tested failed to show a significant degree of compression rate dependence of high-pressure neurological syndrome (HPNS) convulsion thresholds. The implications of this finding for the formulation of hypotheses regarding the biophysical basis for HPNS convulsions has been discussed. Comparison of intrinsic HPNS susceptibility in different species, in the light of these findings, requires that the comparison be made at a common compression rate. Four of the five lower vertebrate species fall consistently into the category showing high HPNS convulsion threshold pressures regardless of the compression rate employed, whereas the two primates and the one carnivore tested equally consistently fall in the low convulsion threshold pressure category. The data suggest a parallel between the degree of brain development and the relative HPNS susceptibility of a given species and contrast with the inverse relations observed during maturation of newborn mice and rats. The results are compared with data for other convulsants and suggest grouping HPNS and pentylenetetrazole seizures as against electroshock, hyperoxic, flurothyl, strychine, or picrotoxin convulsions.