Neural Regeneration Research ›› 2013, Vol. 8 ›› Issue (3): 264-269.doi: 10.3969/j.issn.1673-5374.2013.03.009

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Effects of oxygen concentration and flow rate on cognitive ability and physiological responses in the elderly

Hyun-Jun Kim1, Hyun-Kyung Park2, Dae-Woon Lim3, Mi-Hyun Choi4, Hyun-Joo Kim4, In-Hwa Lee4, Hyung-Sik Kim4, Jin-Seung Choi4, Gye-Rae Tack4, Soon-Cheol Chung4   

  1. 1 Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Konkuk University, Chungju 308-701, Republic of Korea
    2 Department of Laboratory Medicine, Seoul Clinical Laboratories, Seoul 140-809, Republic of Korea
    3 Department of Information & Communication Engineering, Dongguk University, Seoul 100-715, Republic of Korea
    4 Department of Biomedical Engineering, Research Institute of Biomedical Engineering, College of Biomedical & Health Science, Konkuk University, Chungju 380-701, Republic of Korea
  • Received:2012-07-18 Revised:2012-10-08 Online:2013-01-25 Published:2013-01-25
  • Contact: Soon-Cheol Chung, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Research Institute of Biomedical Engineering, College of Biomedical & Health Science, Konkuk University, 322 Danwall-dong, Chungju, Chungbuk 380-701, Republic of Korea, scchung@ kku.ac.kr.
  • About author:Hyun-Jun Kim☆, M.D.

Abstract:

The supply of highly concentrated oxygen positively affects cognitive processing in normal young adults. However, there have been few reports on changes in cognitive ability in elderly subjects following highly concentrated oxygen administration. This study investigated changes in cognitive ability, blood oxygen saturation (%), and heart rate (beats/min) in normal elderly subjects at three different levels of oxygen [21% (1 L/min), 93% (1 L/min), and 93% (5 L/min)] administered during a 1-back task. Eight elderly male (75.3 ± 4.3 years old) and 10 female (71.1 ± 3.9 years old) subjects, who were normal in cognitive ability as shown by a score of more than 24 points in the Mini-Mental State Examination-Korea, participated in the experiment. The experiment consisted of an adaptation phase after the start of oxygen administration (3 minutes), a control phase to obtain stable baseline measurements of heart rate and blood oxygen saturation before the task (2 minutes), and a task phase during which the 1-back task was performed (2 minutes). Three levels of oxygen were administered throughout the three phases (7 minutes). Blood oxygen saturation and heart rate were measured during each phase. Our results show that blood oxygen saturation increased, heart rate decreased, and response time in the 1-back task decreased as the concentration and amount of administered oxygen increased. This shows that administration of sufficient oxygen for optimal cognitive functioning increases blood oxygen saturation and decreases heart rate.