Oxygen administration and explicit memory: no improvement found in healthy volunteers.
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).
Dimpel
H L
HL
Department of Anaesthesia, Flinders Medical Centre, Adelaide, Australia.
Sneyd
J R
JR
Sanders
H
H
Dennis
I
I
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*
D010100:Oxygen