An AFM investigation of the effects of acute hypoxia on mental rotation.
To determine if the stimulus identification stage of information processing is slowed by hypoxia, eight highly trained subjects performed a mental rotation task involving same or different responses to pairs of two-dimensional figures rotated in the picture plane. They breathed low oxygen mixtures adjusted to maintain arterial blood oxygen saturation at 64%. The results showed that hypoxia increased the intercept rather than the slope of the linear function relating reaction time to angle of rotation. According to Additive Factors Method logic, this result indicates that hypoxia does not slow stimulus identification. This is further evidence against the long-held view that hypoxia impairs information processing mechanisms throughout the system--the multiple loci hypothesis. The authors propose instead the early slowing hypothesis. According to this view, the slowing produced by hypoxia is highly specific to one or two early stages of visual processing, and this early slowing acts as a bottleneck to later processing.
Lindeis
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AE
Department of Psychology and Graduate Programme in Exercise and Health Science, York University, North York, Ontario, Canada.
Nathoo
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A
Fowler
B
B
D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D000860:Hypoxia / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D008297:Male; D009949:Orientation / Q000502:physiology*; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D011340:Problem Solving / Q000502:physiology*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology*; D012016:Reference Values