The brain predictably responds to a fall in arterial
oxygen content, generically referred to as arterial hypoxia,
with an increase in cerebral blood flow ~CBF!.
Various types of arterial hypoxia have been defined.33
Inhalation of a gas mixture deficient in oxygen produces
hypoxic hypoxia. Hypoxic hypoxia decreases cerebral
arterial and venous PO2 ~Ref. 16! and thus arterial and
venous oxygen content. Anemic hypoxia is produced by
decreasing total oxygen binding capacity and therefore
lowering arterial and venous oxygen contents, but, in