Citation

Billaut F, Gueit P, Faure S, Costalat G, Lemaître F. Appl. Physiol. Nutr. Metab. 2018; 43(3): 247-251.

Affiliation

Universite de Rouen UFR des Sciences et Techniques, 98758, Centre d'Etudes des Transformations des Activités Physiques et Sportives, EA n°3832, Mont-Saint-Aignan, France ; frederic.lemaitre@univ-rouen.fr.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, National Research Council of Canada)

DOI

10.1139/apnm-2017-0245

PMID

29053942

Abstract

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 three groups [12 elite breath-hold divers (EBHD, mean static apnea best time 371 sec, 105 months mean apnea experience); 12 novice breath-hold divers (NBHD, mean best time 243 sec, 8.75 months mean apnea experience); and 12 physical education students with no breath-hold diving experience (CRTL)], and performed varied written and computerized neuropsychological tasks. Compared with the two other groups, EBHD were 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.

Language: en