Vadas Dor, Kalichman Leonid, Hadanny Amir, Efrati Shai
The Israeli Rehabilitation Center for Stroke and Brain Injury, Rehovot, Israel.
Department of Physical Therapy, Faculty of Health Sciences, Recanati School for Community Health Professions, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, BeerSheva, Israel.
Front Integr Neurosci. 2017 Sep 27;11:25. doi: 10.3389/fnint.2017.00025. eCollection 2017.
The Brain uses 20% of the total oxygen supply consumed by the entire body. Even though, <10% of the brain is active at any given time, it utilizes almost all the oxygen delivered. In order to perform complex tasks or more than one task (multitasking), the oxygen supply is shifted from one brain region to another, via blood perfusion modulation. The aim of the present study was to evaluate whether a hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) environment, with increased oxygen supply to the brain, will enhance the performance of complex and/or multiple activities. A prospective, double-blind randomized control, crossover trial including 22 healthy volunteers. Participants were asked to perform a cognitive task, a motor task and a simultaneous cognitive-motor task (multitasking). Participants were randomized to perform the tasks in two environments: (a) normobaric air (1 ATA 21% oxygen) (b) HBO (2 ATA 100% oxygen). Two weeks later participants were crossed to the alternative environment. Blinding of the normobaric environment was achieved in the same chamber with masks on while hyperbaric sensation was simulated by increasing pressure in the first minute and gradually decreasing to normobaric environment prior to tasks performance. Compared to the performance at normobaric conditions, both cognitive and motor single tasks scores were significantly enhanced by HBO environment ( < 0.001 for both). Multitasking performance was also significantly enhanced in HBO environment ( = 0.006 for the cognitive part and = 0.02 for the motor part). The improvement in performance of both single and multi-tasking while in an HBO environment supports the hypothesis which according to, oxygen is indeed a rate limiting factor for brain activity. Hyperbaric oxygenation can serve as an environment for brain performance. Further studies are needed to evaluate the optimal oxygen levels for maximal brain performance.
大脑消耗的氧气占全身总耗氧量的20%。尽管在任何给定时间大脑只有不到10%的区域处于活跃状态，但它几乎利用了输送来的所有氧气。为了执行复杂任务或多项任务（多任务处理），通过血液灌注调节，氧气供应会从一个脑区转移到另一个脑区。本研究的目的是评估高压氧（HBO）环境，即增加大脑的氧气供应，是否会提高复杂和/或多项活动的表现。这是一项前瞻性、双盲随机对照交叉试验，纳入了22名健康志愿者。要求参与者执行一项认知任务、一项运动任务以及一项同时进行的认知 - 运动任务（多任务处理）。参与者被随机分配在两种环境中执行任务：（a）常压空气（1个绝对大气压，21%氧气）（b）高压氧（2个绝对大气压，100%氧气）。两周后，参与者交叉到另一种环境。在同一舱室内，通过佩戴面罩实现常压环境的盲法，而通过在第一分钟增加压力并在任务执行前逐渐降至常压环境来模拟高压感觉。与常压条件下的表现相比，高压氧环境显著提高了认知和运动单项任务的得分（两者均P<0.001）。在高压氧环境中，多任务处理的表现也显著提高（认知部分P = 0.006，运动部分P = 0.02）。在高压氧环境下单项任务和多任务表现的改善支持了这一假设，即氧气确实是大脑活动的限速因素。高压氧合可作为提高大脑表现的一种环境。需要进一步研究以评估实现最大大脑表现的最佳氧气水平。
