title: Oxygen administration and explicit memory: no improvement found in healthy volunteers.
abstract: It has been suggested that oxygen administration to healthy volunteers could improve their memory. We tested this hypothesis with a twin, double crossover, placebo-controlled study in 20 healthy non-smokers, allocated randomly to one of two groups. Blinded to the nature of the gas, group A breathed air first then oxygen on day 1, and then oxygen first, followed by air on day 2. Group B had all exposures in reverse order. After each gas exposure a written memory test with a list of 20 words was carried out and evaluated by a blinded observer. Recall after oxygen exposure (mean 8.3 words) was not significantly different from that after air exposure (mean 9 words).
authors.affiliation: Department of Anaesthesia, Flinders Medical Centre, Adelaide, Australia.
authors.forename: H L
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Dimpel
authors.forename: J R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Sneyd
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sanders
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Dennis
mesh_terms: D018592:Cross-Over Studies; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D006801:Humans; D008568:Memory / Q000187:drug effects*; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000187:drug effects; D010100:Oxygen / Q000494:pharmacology*
chemical_list: D010100:Oxygen