Mental Rotation Effect on Adult Immigrants with Long-term Exposure to High Altitude in Tibet: An ERP Study

Decreased Event-Related Desynchronization of Mental Rotation Tasks in Young Tibetan Immigrants

“…All these results are depicted in Figure 2. The details of the behavior results could also be found in a previous study (Ma et al, 2018).…”

“…Statistical correction for multiple comparisons was performed using t-values to characterize the difference of the standardized current density values between the two groups. The significant mental reaction effect on reaction time was the longest for upside-down orientation (180 • ; Ma et al, 2018). The sLORETA was used for locating the source of the cortical activity underlying mental rotation task for the 180 • stimulus condition between two groups.…”

“…The RRN amplitude under hypoxia (<15 min) was larger than that in the normoxia condition (Ma et al, 2016 ). The RRN amplitude in the high-altitude group related to each rotation angle condition was significantly larger than that of the low-altitude group (Ma et al, 2018 ). RRN is a subcluster of the P3 component, which is an indicator of the brain's cognitive resources (Ma et al, 2016 ).…”

“…Actually, the reduction in psychological resources relative to cognitive executive control function from high-altitude exposure exhibited an obvious influence on spatial ability, which was even observed under a simulated hypoxia environment with a short-term period (Ma et al, 2016 ). The performance of mental rotation task, which was the ability to imagine two- or three-dimensional objects rotating in the mind (Zacks, 2008 ), was remarkably slower in high-altitude immigrants than that of low-altitude adults (Ma et al, 2018 ). Zhang et al ( 2013 ) found that the reaction time of mental rotation task was increased in the immigrants who migrated to the high-altitude area (2,300–4,400 m) for 2 years when compared with individuals in the low-altitude area.…”

The human brain in a high altitude natural environment: A review

“…Recently, serial task-induced ERPs were measured in immigrants who had lived at Lhasa (3560 m) for more than 2 years. The HA immigrants showed reduced attentional resources with smaller P3 amplitudes ( Wang et al, 2014 ; Qiu et al, 2021 ), reduced attention reactions in visual search tasks with lower N2pc amplitudes ( Zhang et al, 2018a ), overactive performance monitoring with larger error-related negative and correct-related negative amplitudes ( Ma et al, 2015a ), impaired response inhibition in the conflict-monitoring stage ( Ma et al, 2015b ; Wang et al, 2021 ) and visual executive ability ( Ma et al, 2015c ) with smaller P3 amplitudes, slowed stimulus-driven behaviors and P3 magnitudes of resource allocation ( Ma et al, 2018a ), impaired spatial manipulation ability with larger rotation-related negativity amplitudes ( Ma et al, 2018b ), decreased P50 mean amplitude and delay activity amplitude of mental rotation ( Li et al, 2021 ), impaired spatial working memory with lower P2 and impaired verbal and spatial working memory maintenance with late-positive potentials ( Ma et al, 2019b ), and decreased alpha event-related desynchronization at the parietal-occipital regions and beta event-related desynchronization at the central-parietal regions within the time window (400–700 ms) in the mental rotation task ( Xiang et al, 2021 ). Taken together, these electrophysiological studies showed that prolonged exposure to HA mainly impairs the late processing stage of cognition due to insufficient attention resources.…”