Do elite breath-hold divers suffer from mild short-term memory impairments?

• Published in: Applied physiology, nutrition, and metabolism Vol. 43; no. 3; pp. 247 - 251
• Main Authors: Billaut, François, Gueit, Patrice, Faure, Sylvane, Costalat, Guillaume, Lemaître, Frédéric
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Canada NRC Research Press 01.03.2018; Canadian Science Publishing NRC Research Press; NRC Research Press (Canadian Science Publishing)
• Subjects: Adult; Anoxia; apnea; apnée; Breath Holding; breath-hold diving; cognition; Cognition & reasoning; consciousness; Diving; education; Executive function; Health aspects; Human health and pathology; Humans; Hypoxia; Hypoxia - etiology; hypoxie; Life Sciences; Male; Memory; Memory disorders; Memory, Short-Term; men; Middle Aged; mémoire à court terme; Neuropsychological Tests; Physiological aspects; plongée en apnée; Risk factors; Short-term memory; Skin diving; Sleep apnea; sports; students; Tissues and Organs; Young Adult; France; apnea; apnée; hypoxia; breath-hold diving; cognition; hypoxie; mémoire à court terme; plongée en apnée; short-term memory
• ISSN: 1715-5312; 1715-5320; 1715-5320
• DOI: 10.1139/apnm-2017-0245

Repeated apneas are associated with severe hypoxemia that may ultimately lead to loss of consciousness in some breath-hold divers. Despite increasing number of practitioners, the relationship between apnea-induced hypoxia and neurocognitive functions is still poorly understood in the sport of free diving. To shed light onto this phenomenon, we examined the impact of long-term breath-hold diving training on attentional processing, short-term memory, and long-term mnesic and executive functions. Thirty-six men matched for age, height, and weight were separated into the following 3 groups: (i) 12 elite breath-hold divers (EBHD), mean static apnea best time 371 s, 105 months mean apnea experience; (ii) 12 novice breath-hold divers, mean best time 243 s, 8.75 months mean apnea experience; and (iii) 12 physical education students with no breath-hold diving experience; all of these participants performed varied written and computerized neuropsychological tasks. Compared with the 2 other groups, the EBHD group was slower to complete the interference card during a Stroop test (F [1,33] = 4.70, p < 0.05), and presented more errors on the interference card (F [1,33] = 2.96, p < 0.05) and a lower total interference score (F [1,33] = 5.64, p < 0.05). The time to complete the interference card test was positively correlated with maximal static apnea duration (r = 0.73, p < 0.05) and the number of years of breath-hold diving training (r = 0.79, p < 0.001). These findings suggest that breath-hold diving training over several years may cause mild, but persistent, short-term memory impairments.