title: Ambient air, oxygen and nitrox effects on cognitive performance at altitude.
abstract: The effects on cognitive performance of breathing air, oxygen and nitrox gas mixtures at surface ambient pressures were investigated during an expedition to the Everest region of Nepal. A slight improvement in grammatical reasoning at altitude was found under nitrox (p < 0.05) and mathematical reasoning showed improvement at altitude on air (p < 0.05), oxygen (p < 0.01) and nitrox (p < 0.01). There were non-significant trends towards decreasing mathematical ability, coupled with an increase in variance on both grammatical and mathematical test performance, with increasing pO2 (all p > 0.05). The results suggest that there is a subtle interaction on cognition as indicated by a significant three-way interaction between subject x altitude x gas (p < 0.05).
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Faculty of Applied Sciences, University of Lancaster. j.leach@lancaster.ac.uk
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Leach
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Almond
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000531:Altitude; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003071:Cognition / Q000187:drug effects*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009390:Nepal; D009584:Nitrogen / Q000494:pharmacology*; D010100:Oxygen / Q000494:pharmacology*; D011837:Radiation-Protective Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*
chemical_list: D011837:Radiation-Protective Agents; C041364:nitrox; D009584:Nitrogen; D010100:Oxygen