OXYGEN ADMINISTRATION SELECTIVELY ENHANCES COGNITIVE PERFORMANCE IN HEALTHY-YOUNG ADULTS - A PLACEBO-CONTROLLED DOUBLE-BLIND CROSSOVER STUDY

It was recently demonstrated that oxygen administration can improve pe rformance on a simple word recall task in healthy young adults. This s tudy was aimed at determining the impact of various durations of oxyge n administration on a wider range of cognitive measures. This was achi eved using the Cognitive Drug Research computerised test battery, and employing a double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover design. Over a period of 7 weeks, 20 participants were trained and subsequently asses sed on the test battery under several durations of oxygen inhalation; air administered in an identical fashion served as a control. The resu lts provided support for our earlier work in that increases were found in both immediate and delayed word recall. In addition, oxygen admini stration significantly improved performance on several measures of att ention and vigilance. Simple reaction time, choice reaction time, digi t vigilance reaction time and picture recognition reaction time were i mproved in a manner which depended on the duration of oxygen inspired. With the exception of word recall, no significant improvements were f ound for any measure of accuracy, nor were word recognition, digit mem ory scanning, or spatial memory improved. These results are discussed in the context of stages of information processing and are consistent with the hypothesis that cognitive performance is ''fuel-limited'' and can be differentially augmented by increasing the availability of the brain's metabolic resources.