Journal
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSIOLOGY
Volume 116, Issue 7, Pages 1367-1377Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s00421-016-3390-2
Keywords
Breath-holding; Dry static apnoea; Brain tissue oxygenation; DC potential; EEG; Attention level
Categories
Funding
- Program of Basic Research of Department of Physiology and Basic Medicine of Russian Academy of Sciences
- Program Psychophysiological bases of human activity [AAAA-A16-116021660050-6]
- Russian Foundation for Basic Research [12-04-01665-a]
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The aim of the study was to investigate the effects of voluntary breath-holding on brain activity and physiological functions. We hypothesised that prolonged apnoea would trigger cerebral hypoxia, resulting in a decrease of brain performance; and the apnoea's effects would be more pronounced in breath-hold divers. Trained breath-hold divers and non-divers performed maximal dry breath-holdings. Lung volume, alveolar partial pressures of O-2 and CO2, attention and anxiety levels were estimated. Heart rate, blood pressure, arterial blood oxygenation, brain tissue oxygenation, EEG, and DC potential were monitored continuously during breath-holding. There were a few significant changes in electrical brain activity caused by prolonged apnoea. Brain tissue oxygenation index and DC potential were relatively stable up to the end of the apnoea in breath-hold divers and non-divers. We also did not observe any decrease of attention level or speed of processing immediately after breath-holding. Interestingly, trained breath-hold divers had some peculiarities in EEG activity at resting state (before any breath-holding): non-spindled, sharpened alpha rhythm; slowed-down alpha with the frequency nearer to the theta band; and untypical spatial pattern of alpha activity. Our findings contradicted the primary hypothesis. Apnoea up to 5 min does not lead to notable cerebral hypoxia or a decrease of brain performance in either breath-hold divers or non-divers. It seems to be the result of the compensatory mechanisms similar to the diving response aimed at centralising blood circulation and reducing peripheral O-2 uptake. Adaptive changes during apnoea are much more prominent in trained breath-hold divers.
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