Spatial Abilities at High Altitude: Exploring the Role of Cultural Strategies and Hypoxia

Bondi, Danilo, Vittore Verratti, Raffaella Nori, Laura Piccardi, Giulia Prete, Tiziana Pietrangelo, and Luca Tommasi. Spatial abilities at high altitude Exploring the role of cultural strategies and hypoxia. High Alt Med Biol. 22 157-165, 2021. Background Over the past couple of decades, the number of people of different cultures traveling to places of high altitude (HA) increased. At HA, a decline in cognitive abilities has been described, including spatial skills. However, it is still unknown whether people accustomed to hypobaric hypoxia are less susceptible to cognitive decline. Method We aimed to determine if three ethnic groups would show any difference in the performance of spatial abilities. Italian trekkers (46.20 ± 15.83 years), Nepalese porters (30.33 ± 8.55 years), and lowlander and highlander Sherpas (30.33 ± 8.55 and 37.00 ± 16.51 years) were tested with a building photograph recognition, a map orienting, and a mental rotation task during a Himalayan expedition. Accuracy and response times were collected at low altitude (LA) and HA. Results Nepalese performed the worst (photograph task p = 0.015, η2p = 0.36; map task p = 0.016, η2p = 0.36), but the difference was mitigated after correcting for length of schooling. Participants took more time to respond at LA than in HA condition (photograph task 24.0 ± 15.3 seconds vs. 12.7 ± 6.3 seconds, p = 0.008, η2p = 0.57; map task 12.5 ± 1.8 seconds vs. 7.8 ± 0.6 seconds, p = 0.038, η2p = 0.40). In the map task, participants performed with greater accuracy at LA (5.1 ± 0.4 vs. 4.4 ± 0.4 number of correct responses, p = 0.006, η2p = 0.59). Conclusions Altitude hypoxia elicited impairments in cognitive spatial tasks. This may be due to the inability to acquire new unfamiliar patterns, and to the difficulty in managing a high cognitive workload. The ethnic differences were ascribed to schooling, even we consider the different system of reference usually exploited in each culture (egocentric dependent, or allocentric independent from the personal viewpoint), and that Westerners are more likely to focus on specific details of the scene. Further studies should investigate the diverse strategies to complete spatial tasks.