Yan Wang

Introduction: Migraine is a common chronic primary headache. Cognitive dysfunction has been found in patients with migraine after repetitive attacks. We used aspecific task paradigm called Go/No-Go to explore cognitive dysfunction, especially cortical inhibition. Methods: Our study included 30 participants with migraine and 30 healthy controls. We used the Go/No-Go task to analyze different Event related potential （ERP） components,such as latency or amplitude,to explore whether differences couldbe found. The two-tailed Pearson’s R correlation was performed between the clinical characteristics of patients with migraine,such as education, clinical course, duration, frequency, pain intensity, and ERP data. To test thedegree of independence between the clinical characteristics and ERP data, we performed multiple regression. Results: At the electrophysiological level, participants with migraine had longer latencies and larger amplitudes of N2 or P3 than the control group under the Go or No-Go conditions. In addition, significant two-tailed Pearson’s R correlations werefound in different areas. In particular, clinical characteristics were correlated with No-Go-N2 latency or amplitude in the frontal, central, or temporal area and correlated with No-Go-P3 latency or amplitude in the midline area of the frontal-central-parietal lobe. Finally, linear regression analysis revealed severalindependent factors that affected the N2 or P3 components in specific cortical areas. Conclusion: Our study revealed that repetitive attacks may influence response inhibition in patients with migraine. Abnormal changes in the inhibition process or inhibition supervision have been presented and interpreted by N2/P3 components under the Go/No-Go condition. Additionally, correlations were found between sex, education, pain, and N2/P3 components located in different regions. On the basis of our results, we found that patients with migraine have poor executive function, delayed response, abnormal response inhibition, and abnormal inhibitory monitoring, meriting the design and execution of future clinical studies.

This study aimed to explore the neural mechanism underlying high-altitude (HA) adaptation and deadaptation on perceptual processes in lowlanders. Eighteen healthy lowlanders were administered a facial S1-S2 matching task that included incomplete face (S1) and complete face (S2) photographs, combined with ERP technology. Participants were tested shortly before they went to HA at sea level (Test 1), twenty-five days after entering HA (Test 2), one week (Test 3) and one month (Test 4) after returning to lowlands. Compared with sea level baseline, shorter latencies of P1 and N170 and larger amplitudes of complete face N170 were found in HA. After returning to sea level, compared with HA, the amplitude of the incomplete face P1 was smaller after one week and the complete face was smaller after one month. The right hemisphere N170 amplitude was larger after entering HA and one week after returning to sea level compared to baseline, but it returned to baseline after one month. Taken together, the current findings suggest that HA adaptation increases visual cortex excitation to accelerate perceptual processing. More mental resources are recruited during the configural encoding stage of complete faces after HA exposure. The perceptual processes affected by HA exposure is reversible after returning to sea level, but the low-level processing stage is different between incomplete and complete faces due to neural compensation mechanisms. The configural encoding stage in the right hemisphere is affected by HA exposure and requires more than one week but less than one month to recover to baseline

Cognitive function is affected by low pressure and hypoxia in high-altitude environments, and is regulated by altitude and exposure time. With the economic development in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the increase in work and study activities, as well as the development of plateau tourism, mountaineering, and other activities, the number of plateau immigrants is increasing daily. Long-term hypoxia challenges human physical and mental health, restricts work efficiency, and thus affects plateau economic development and human wellbeing. Therefore, it is of scientific and social significance to study how long-term exposure to the hypoxic plateau environment affects the physical and mental health of lowlanders as part of the ongoing development of the current plateau region. In this paper, we reviewed the research progress and mechanism of the effects of long-term (≥1 year) high-altitude (>2500 m) hypoxia exposure on the cognitive function of lowlanders, and suggested that the scope and sample size of the research should be expanded in the future, and that follow-up studies should be carried out to explore the time threshold of cognitive impairment and its compensatory or repair mechanism.

The effect of emotion on prospective memory on those of different age groups and its neural mechanism in Chinese adults are still unclear. The present study investigated the effect of emotion on prospective memory during the encoding and retrieval phases in younger and older adults by using event-related potentials (ERPs). In the behavioral results, a shorter response time was found for positive prospective memory cues only in older group. In the ERP results, during the encoding phase, an increased late positive potential (LPP) was found for negative prospective memory cues in younger adults, while the amplitude of the LPP was marginally greater for positive prospective memory cues than for negative prospective memory cues in older adults. Correspondingly, younger adults showed an increased parietal positivity for negative prospective memory cues, while an elevated parietal positivity for positive prospective memory cues was found in older adults during the retrieval phase. This finding reflects the increased attentional processing of encoding and the more cognitive resources recruited to carry out a set of processes that are associated with the realization of delayed intentions when the prospective memory cues are emotional. The results reveal the effect of emotion on prospective memory during the encoding and retrieval phases in Chinese adults, modulated by aging, as shown by a positivity effect on older adults and a negativity bias in younger adults.

Long-term exposure to high altitude affects spatial working memory. Previous studies have focused on the analysis of electroencephalogram (EEG) components in time domain rather than in frequency domain. To explore the influence of long-term high altitude exposure on time dynamic characteristics and neural oscillation process of the spatial working memory, n-back task combined with the technology of event related potential recording was performed on 20 young migrants who grew at low altitude before the age of 18 and moved to high altitude more than three years ago, and 21 young people who had never been to the high altitude. EEG data were recorded, and the time domain and frequency domain analyses were performed. The results showed that the response time was longer and the accuracy rate was lower under the 2-back condition in the high altitude group compared with those in low altitude group. The late positive potential (LPP) amplitude was more negative, P2 amplitude was more positive in the 2-back condition, and the power value of early delta frequency band (1-4 Hz, 160-300 ms) was larger, while the power values of late delta frequency band (1-4 Hz, 450-650 ms) and theta frequency band (4-8 Hz, 450-650 ms) were smaller in the high altitude group compared with those in low altitude group. The results suggested that long-term exposure to high altitude affected the spatial working memory ability of the migrants, which was reflected in the lack of attention resources in the later matching stage, decreased response inhibition ability and information maintenance ability, and thus resulted in impaired spatial working memory.

Background The existence of a particular threshold of hypoxia severity, beyond which neuropsychological functioning is compromised, is unclear. We investigated the neurocognitive profile related to conflict control in healthy young Tibetans born and living at three different altitudes (2,700 m, 3,700 m, and 4,500 m) in Tibet to investigate the existence of this threshold. Methods Using event-related potentials (ERPs), the conflict control functions of individuals in the three altitude groups were investigated by means of a flanker task, using congruent and incongruent stimuli. The data were analyzed using mixed-model analyses of variance. Results Although effect of altitude was not significant at a behavioral level (p > 0.05), the ERPs showed cognitive conflict modulation. The N2 difference wave (for incongruent minus congruent conditions) was smaller in the 4,500-m group than in the groups living below 4,000 m (p < 0.05). The study’s findings suggest that the influence of high altitude in the conflict monitoring stage becomes significant above 4,000 m. Thus, the altitude threshold for impairment of cognition may be 4,000 m.