Abstract
The present study aimed to explore the cortical activity underlying mental rotation in high-altitude immigrants via the event-related desynchronization (ERD), the electroencephalogram time–frequency analysis, and source localization based on electroencephalographic data. When compared with the low-altitude individuals, the reaction time of mental rotation tasks was significantly slower in immigrants who had lived in high-altitude areas for 3 years. The time–frequency analysis showed that the alpha ERD and the beta ERD within the time window (400–700 ms) were decreased during the mental rotation tasks in these immigrants. The decreased ERD was observed at the parietal–occipital regions within the alpha band and at the central–parietal regions within the beta band. The decreased ERD might embody the sensorimotor-related cortical activity from hypoxia, which might be involved in cognitive control function in high-altitude immigrants, which provided insights into the neural mechanism of spatial cognition change on aspect of embodied cognition due to high-altitude exposure.
Highlights
Many studies have indicated that long-term exposure to high altitude may affect cognitive ability, especially the spatial information processing (Wilson et al, 2009; Nation et al, 2017)
The alpha event-related desynchronization (ERD) and the beta ERD were obviously observed in 400– 700 ms after the target stimulation presented during the mental rotation task
Through using the time–frequency analysis, the present study further demonstrated that the alpha ERD and beta ERD were decreased in the high-altitude group during 400–700 ms time window, proving that the cortical activity was decreased from high-altitude exposure (Cummins et al, 1993)
Summary
Many studies have indicated that long-term exposure to high altitude may affect cognitive ability, especially the spatial information processing (Wilson et al, 2009; Nation et al, 2017). 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 obvious slowness of reaction time of mental rotation from high-altitude hypoxia was observed, it is still largely unclear about the neural mechanism underlying this observation
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