title: Evaluation of cognitive performance in professional divers by means of event-related potentials and neuropsychology.
abstract: We investigated whether professional air diving with no decompression illness causes any long-term changes in cognitive functions.
  
  
  
  The all-male participants consisted of 18 healthy control (HC) volunteers and 32 divers. Divers were divided into two subgroups as moderate exposure group, Divers-I (DI) and extensive exposure group, Divers-II (DII). Participants were administered a comprehensive neuropsychological battery and event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded while they performed auditory oddball task and visual continuous performance test (CPT).
  
  
  
  P3 waves in oddball and CPT were significantly attenuated and peak latencies were prolonged in both diver groups compared with HC. Amplitude decrements in CPT P3 were graded with respect to level of diving exposure. Neuropsychologically, DII group displayed significantly poorer performance than HC and DI groups in measures of visuo-constructional and visual long-term memory tests. DI group performed better than HC group in some measures of planning ability.
  
  
  
  Most of the changes in neurophysiological measures and poorer neuropsychological performance were found in DII group, and this might be interpreted as a red flag for the reflection of the slowly progressing deleterious effects of silent bubbles in brain function.
  
  
  
  This study reports impairments in certain neuropsychological measures and apparent neurophysiological markers pointing to slow cognitive decline referring to long-term effects of diving.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, School of Medicine, Acibadem University, Atasehir 34752, Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Mehmet
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ergen
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, Istanbul Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul University, 34093 Capa, Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Atilla
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Uslu
authors.affiliation: Department of Underwater and Hyperbaric Medicine, Istanbul Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul University, 34093 Capa, Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Ozlem
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Caglar
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Behavioral Neurology and Movement Disorders Unit, Istanbul Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul University, 34093 Capa, Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Sukriye
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Akca-Kalem
authors.affiliation: Department of Underwater and Hyperbaric Medicine, Istanbul Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul University, 34093 Capa, Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Maide
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cimsit
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Behavioral Neurology and Movement Disorders Unit, Istanbul Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul University, 34093 Capa, Istanbul, Turkey. Electronic address: gurvit@istanbul.edu.tr.
authors.forename: Hakan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Gurvit
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003071:Cognition; D004242:Diving / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000502:physiology*; D005071:Evoked Potentials; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D057567:Memory, Long-Term; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests
keywords: Cognitive performance; Diving; Event-related potentials; Neuropsychological tests; P3; Silent bubbles