title: [Effects of simulated high altitude hypoxia on cognitive performance].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the effects of mild and moderate hypoxia on human cognitive performance.
  
  
  METHODS
  Eighteen healthy young male volunteers performed a set of tests of human ergonomics at sea level (300 m in Xi'an) and simulated high altitude of 2 800 m, 3 600 m and 4 400 m for 1 h in hypobaric chamber, respectively.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The performance of continuous recognition memory tests compared with the controls' was deteriorated significantly (P < 0.01) after exposure to 2 800 m for 1 h. After exposure to 3 600 m for 1 h, in all test, the reaction time was much longer, the accurate rates were lower and the performance was worse than that of control (P < 0.05). All the parameters were deteriorated with the increment of altitude and the performance of all tests were much worse at 4 300 m for 1 h (P < 0.01).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Different parameters of human cognitive performance may have different susceptible thresholds to hypoxia according to the results from our studies. The cognitive performance after exposure to 3 600 m for 1 h was not sufficiently effective for the demands of human ergonomics due to its significant deteriorating changes. However, the performance can be effectively restored after exposure to enough oxygen supply for 1 h.
authors.affiliation: Department of Aerospace Medicine, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an 710032, China.
authors.forename: Xing-Yu
authors.initials: XY
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Xue-Yi
authors.initials: XY
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Jia-Tong
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Yong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhuang
authors.forename: Jian-Ying
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Du
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000531:Altitude; D003071:Cognition; D006801:Humans; D000860:Hypoxia / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D011930:Reaction Time; D055815:Young Adult