The distribution of regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) was examined in conscious, voluntarily diving rats using the brain blood flow tracer N-[14C]isopropyl-p-iodoamphetamine and quantitative autoradiography. A detailed examination of the regional distribution of cerebral blood flow revealed that almost all brain regions were hyperperfused during diving. During diving, rCBF increased by an average of 1.7-fold in 29 of the 33 brain regions examined, despite a 69.2 % decrease in cardiac output. Only some regions of the basal ganglia (caudate-putamen and globus pallidus) and limbic areas (hippocampus and amygdala) did not increase rCBF significantly during diving. We determined that the increase in rCBF during diving is primarily due to a corresponding 20.9 % decrease in cerebrovascular resistance. A significant increase in perfusion pressure during diving also potentially contributed to the increase in rCBF. Because some brain regions did not increase flow significantly during diving, these results suggest that not all brain regions participate equally in the global cerebrovascular response to diving. This study provides evidence to support the view that the brain is preferentially perfused during conscious voluntary diving in the rat. The mechanism(s) that probably produce the cerebrovascular changes during diving are discussed.
Distribution of regional cerebral blood flow in voluntarily diving rats.
G P Ollenberger, N H West; Distribution of regional cerebral blood flow in voluntarily diving rats.. J Exp Biol 15 February 1998; 201 (4): 549–558. doi: https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.201.4.549
Download citation file:
Advertisement
Cited by
In the field: an interview with Martha Muñoz

Martha Muñoz is an Assistant Professor at Yale University, investigating the evolutionary biology of anole lizards and lungless salamanders. In our new Conversation, she talks about her fieldwork in Indonesia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic and the Appalachian Mountains, including a death-defying dash to the top of a mountain through an approaching hurricane.
Call for new preLighters
(update)-CallForPreLighters.png?versionId=3981)
preLights is the preprint highlighting community supported by The Company of Biologists. At the heart of preLights are our preLighters: early-career researchers who select and write about interesting new preprints for the research community. We are currently looking for new preLighters to join our team. Find out more and apply here.
Graham Scott in conversation with Big Biology

Graham Scott talks to Big Biology about the oxygen cascade in mice living on mountaintops, extreme environments for such small organisms. In this JEB-sponsored episode, they discuss the concept of symmorphosis and the evolution of the oxygen cascade.
Trap-jaw ants coordinate tendon and exoskeleton for perfect mandible arc
-AntJaws.png?versionId=3981)
Trap-jaw ants run the risk of tearing themselves apart when they fire off their mandibles, but Greg Sutton & co have discovered that the ants simultaneously push and pull the mandibles using energy stored in a head tendon and their exoskeleton to drive the jaws in a perfect arc.
Hearing without a tympanic ear
-Review.png?versionId=3981)
In their Review, Grace Capshaw, Jakob Christensen-Dalsgaard and Catherine Carr explore the mechanisms of hearing in extant atympanate vertebrates and the implications for the early evolution of tympanate hearing.