Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2023 Mar 14;20(6):5101.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph20065101.

The Effects of High-Altitude Mountaineering on Cognitive Function in Mountaineers: A Meta-Analysis

Lun Li  1 , Yun Zhou  1 , Shisi Zou  1 , Yongtai Wang  2
Affiliations
Review

The Effects of High-Altitude Mountaineering on Cognitive Function in Mountaineers: A Meta-Analysis

Lun Li et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: Nowadays, with the convenience of international traveling and driven by many individuals' fond dreams of challenging high-altitude exercises, high-altitude mountaineering is becoming increasingly popular worldwide. Therefore, we performed a meta-analysis to determine the effects of high-altitude mountaineering on cognitive functions in mountaineers before and after climbing.

Methods: After a thorough electronic literature search and selection, eight studies were included in this meta-analysis, and the conducted test cycles ranged from 8 to 140 days. Eight variables were included in this meta-analysis: the Trail-Making Test (TMB), Digit Span-Forward (DSF), Digit Span-Backward (DSB), Finger Tapping Test-Right (FTR) Finger Tapping Test-Left (FTL), Wechsler Memory Scale Visual (WMSV), the Aphasia Screening Test (Verbal Items) (AST-Ver), and the Aphasia Screening Test (Visual Motor Errors) (AST-Vis). The effect sizes (ES) and forest plots of these eight variables were generated.

Results: Five variables (TMB, ES = 0.39; DSF, ES = 0.57; FTR, ES = 0.50; FTL, ES = 0.16; WMSV, ES = 0.63) out of eight were significantly improved after high-altitude mountaineering, whereas the ES values of DSB, AST-Ver, and AST-Vis did not show significant improvement after climbing.

Conclusion: Despite two limitations, namely, methodological issues inherent in the meta-analysis and the inability to explain high heterogeneity between studies, this study is the first meta-analysis that has attempted to specify and compare the cognitive functions of mountaineers before and after high-altitude mountaineering. Furthermore, as a short-term plateau exercise, high-altitude mountaineering has no significant negative impacts on the cognitive functions of climbers. Future research is needed for a long period of high-altitude mountaineering.

Keywords: cognitive function; high-altitude; meta-analysis; mountaineer; mountaineering.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. Ethical issues, including plagiarism, informed consent, misconduct, data fabrication and/or falsification, double publication and/or submission, redundancy, and so on, have been completely observed by the authors.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flow chart of literature screening.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Crust L., Swann C., Allen-Collinson J. The Thin Line: A Phenomenological Study of Mental Toughness and Decision Making in Elite High-Altitude Mountaineers. J. Sport Exerc. Psychol. 2016;38:598–611. doi: 10.1123/jsep.2016-0109. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Paralikar S.J., Paralikar J.H. High-altitude medicine. Indian J. Occup. Environ. Med. 2010;14:6–12. doi: 10.4103/0019-5278.64608. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Du J.Y., Li X.Y., Zhuang Y., Wu X.Y., Wang T. Effects of Acute Mild and Moderate Hypoxia on Human Short Memory. Space Med. Med. Eng. 1999;12:270–273. - PubMed
    1. Li X., Wu X., Han L., Wei Y., Wang T. The effects of acute moderate hypoxia on humanerformance of attention span and atiention shift. J. Fourth Mil. Med. Univ. 1999;20:71–73.
    1. Pelamatti G., Pascotto M., Semenza C. Verbal free recall in high altitude: Proper names vs common names. Cortex. 2003;39:97–103. doi: 10.1016/S0010-9452(08)70077-7. - DOI - PubMed