Boost your brain: a simple 100% normobaric oxygen treatment improves human motor learning processes

Boost your brain: a simple 100% normobaric oxygen treatment improves human motor learning processes

Blog Article

IntroductionHuman motor learning processes are a fundamental part of our daily lives and can be adversely affected by neurologic conditions.Motor learning largely depends on successfully integrating cognitive and motor-related sensory information, and a simple, easily accessible treatment that could enhance such processes would be exciting and clinically impactful.Normobaric 100% oxygen treatment (NbOxTr) is often used as a first-line intervention to improve Dabs survival rates of brain cells in neurological trauma, and recent work indicates that improvements in elements crucial for cognitive-motor-related functions can occur during NbOxTr.However, whether NbOxTr can enhance the motor learning processes of healthy human brains is unknown.Here, we investigated whether a brief NbOxTr administered via nasal cannula improves motor learning processes during a visuomotor adaptation task where participants adapt to a visual distortion between visual feedback and hand movements.

Methods40 healthy young adults (M = 21 years) were randomly assigned to a NbOxTr (N = 20; 100% oxygen) or air (N = 20; regular air) group and went through four typical visuomotor adaptation phases (Baseline, Adaptation, After-Effect, Refresher).Gas treatment (flow rate 5 L/min) was Wooden Toy only administered during the Adaptation phase of the visuomotor experiment, in both groups.ResultsThe NbOxTr provided during the Adaptation phase led to significantly faster and about 30% improved learning (p < 0.05).Notably, these motor learning improvements consolidated into the subsequent experiment phases, i.

e., after the gas treatment was terminated (p < 0.05).DiscussionWe conclude that this simple and brief NbOxTr dramatically improved fundamental human motor learning processes and may provide promising potential for neurorehabilitation and skill-learning approaches.Further studies should investigate whether similar improvements exist in elderly and neurologically impaired individuals, other motor learning tasks, and also long-lasting effects.