Gamified assessment of cognitive performance during moderate hypoxia

• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0288201
• Publication Date: 2023-07-17T17:22:47Z
• Authors: Jason M. Keeler; Erica Tourula; M. Jo Hite; Jennifer B. Listman; David J. Heeger; Nicholas L. Port; Zachary J. Schlader
• Keywords: Hypoxia; Pulse Oximetry; Post-hoc analysis

Introduction There is a need for rapid and objective assessment tools to identify people at risk of impaired cognitive function during hypoxia. Purpose To test the hypotheses that performance on gamified tests examining domains executive (Gridshot), working memory (Capacity) spatial tracking (Multitracker) will be reduced normobaric exposure moderate Methods Following three consecutive days practice, twenty-one healthy adults (27 ± 5 y, 9 females) completed five 1-min rounds tablet-based games Gridshot, Capacity, Multitracker (Statespace Labs, Inc.) Baseline 60 90 min after 14.0 0.2% (hypoxia) 20.6 0.3% (normoxia) oxygen. Both conditions were same day administered in single-blind, block randomized manner. Arterial oxyhemoglobin saturation was estimated via forehead pulse oximetry (SpO 2 ). Data analyzed using ANCOVA with covariate Baseline. Results Compared normoxia (98 1%), SpO lower (p < 0.001) (91 3%) 2%) No condition x time interaction effects identified any ≥ 0.32). A main effect Capacity = 0.05) 0.04), but not Gridshot 0.33). Post hoc analyses composite scores both 0.11) 0.73) demonstrated no difference between conditions. Conclusion Performance consistently affected by acute hypoxic exposure.