Cerebral function of permanent residents of high altitude: problems and solutions

Symposium — Sunday, April 23, 2024 — 10:30 AM - 12:30 PM — , Room W196B
Environmental and Exercise Physiology Section — Chair: Tatum S. Simonson — Co-Chair: John B. West

It has been known for many years that newcomers to high altitude have impaired physical and mental powers. Permanent residents of high altitude also increase their maximum work level if they move to a lower altitude.  A new and provocative finding is evidence that permanent residents of high altitude have some reduction of neuropsychological function compared with matched groups at low altitude. Advances in technology now enable the oxygen concentrations of rooms and whole buildings at high altitude to be increased thus reducing the equivalent altitude. This raises the prospect of increasing both physical and mental powers in high altitude residents as well as visitors and sojourners. Speakers will describe the milieu of the brain at high altitude and provide evidence of impaired cognitive function in permanent residents. The problem of measuring adaptation to high altitude in an indigenous population will also be discussed.

Speakers

• Studies of neuropsychological function of high altitude residents
  
  Xiaodan Yan — Center for Biomedical Imaging, Harvard University


• Genetic changes in high altitude residents
  
  Tatum S Simonson — Medicine, University of Caifornia San Diego


• Genetic changes in high altitude residents
  
  Tatum S Simonson — Medicine, University of California San Diego


• Measuring adaptation to high altitude in an indigenous population
  
  Lorna G. Moore — Obstetrics & Gynecology, University of Colorado, Denver


• The potential of oxygen conditioning at high altitude
  
  John B West — Medicine, University of California, San Diego