Delayed post hypoxic transient amnesia is not associated with electrical brain seizures.

Rats rendered hypoxic by brief exposure to N2 after learning an avoidance response go into convulsions and subsequently become amnestic. Overt convulsions can be avoided whilst yet producing delayed post-hypoxic transient amnesia (DPHTA) by using 2% O2 in N2 in place of pure N2. The experiments reported here show that with this gas mixture, the ECoG shows hardly any of the electrical activity associated with seizures which occurs with N2. It is concluded that electrical seizures are not associated with the mechanism responsible for DPHTA.