How does cerebral hypoxia cause euphoria?

The mechanism by which the conscious feeling of euphoria is felt is still unknown. Due to the multiple methods by which euphoria can occur it is likely a 'natural' state of the brain that can be triggered either naturally or unnaturally. It is also likely that it occurs in the same brain regions responsible for mood.


You'll note that many of the structures connected to the reward system are glutamatergic interneurons. This means that excess glutamate can trigger the reward system to produce euphoric feelings.

In cerebral hypoxia the lack of oxygen results in a lack of energy for the cell. Mainly this results in the switching off of the sodium / potassium pump. A nerve cell fires by moving sodium outside the cell and potassium inside the cell to create concentration gradients, that are then reversed during an action potential. If the pump does not have oxygen then this mechanism stops. This results in an increase in extracellular glutamate.


It is possible (although I do not have any papers to link to demonstrate this so please accept as an educated guess rather than a fact) that the increased extracellular glutamate results in the activation of the reward center to produce the euphoric feeling.

However also note that hypoxia causes a lot of damage to the nerve cells that are very reliant upon a steady oxygen supply. People who undertake recreational asphyxiation, even if they survive, are causing damage to their brain cells.

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