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. 2019 Apr;9(4):e01256.
doi: 10.1002/brb3.1256. Epub 2019 Mar 20.

Long-term exposure to high altitude attenuates verbal and spatial working memory: Evidence from an event-related potential study

Hailin Ma  1   2 , Delong Zhang  2   3 , Xuebing Li  1 , Huifang Ma  4 , Niannian Wang  2 , Yan Wang  1
Affiliations

Long-term exposure to high altitude attenuates verbal and spatial working memory: Evidence from an event-related potential study

Hailin Ma et al. Brain Behav. 2019 Apr.

Abstract

Introduction: This study aimed to determine the neurocognitive basis underlying the effects of long-term high-altitude (HA) exposure on working memory (WM).

Methods: Using event-related potentials (ERPs), we compared the performance of an HA group (individuals who had lived at HA for 3 years but were born and raised at low altitude [LA]) to that of an LA group (individuals who had only lived at LA) on verbal and spatial n-back tasks (i.e., 1- and 2-back memory load).

Results: Response accuracy of the HA group was significantly decreased in comparison to the LA group in both the verbal and spatial 2-back tasks. The P2 amplitude was larger in the HA than in the LA group in the spatial, but not the verbal 2-back task. A smaller late-positive potential (LPP) amplitude was found in the HA group in both the verbal and spatial 2-back tasks.

Conclusions: These results suggest that HA impairs the matching (P2) process in spatial WM tasks and the maintenance (LPP) process in both verbal and spatial WM tasks, indicating that HA had a different effect on verbal and spatial 2-back task performance.

Keywords: event-related potential; high altitude; n-back; working memory.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Stimuli and experiment procedure of this study
Figure 2
Figure 2
Accuracy rate of the verbal and spatial tasks. Note: *p < 0.05
Figure 3
Figure 3
Response times of the verbal and spatial tasks
Figure 4
Figure 4
The event‐related potential component map of the verbal task condition
Figure 5
Figure 5
The event‐related potential component map of the spatial task condition
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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