Effect of acute severe hypoxic environment on brain network connectivity

Acute exposure to a severely low oxygen environment (<10%) can cause temporary deterioration of cognitive performance. To better understand the mechanism of the hypoxic-related temporary cognitive impairment in the human brain, we examined functional connectivity changes in brain networks during acute severe hypoxia while subjects performed a cognitive task. The acute severe hypoxic environment temporarily increases functional connectivity among salience (SN), default mode (DMN), executive central (ECN), sensorimotor, and visuospatial networks. We observed that increased connectivity of SN to DMN and to ECN during acute severe hypoxia is related with the behavioral cognitive deterioration.