Detrimental Effects of Hypoxia on Brain and Cognitive Functions

In a world increasingly dominated by the exploration of the possibility of living in oxygen-free, uninhabitable, or polluted environments much effort has gone into understanding the detrimental effects of hypoxia on cellular and physiological processes in the human body, and much progress continues to be made. Less well understood are the effects of hypoxia on the human mind and brain functions. The most common adverse effect of hypoxia has on the human brain/mind include cognitive impairment, behavioral changes, and sensory impairments. Prolonged or severe hypoxia may increase the risk of seizures and cause coma or unconsciousness. Without prompt treatment, hypoxia can be the cause of permanent brain damage. In fact, brain cells are very sensitive to the lack of oxygen, and prolonged periods of hypoxia can lead to irreversible neuronal death. While these deficits have long been reported in humans subjected to varying degrees of brain oxygen deprivation, the mechanisms that lead to the disintegration of some mental functions and the relative preservation of others are less well understood. The time has come for a comprehensive research agenda to address the detrimental effects of hypoxia on human brain function and mental processes.
Many questions are still open and unexplored, and this article collection will attempt to contribute to their investigation. We aim to reckon with questions such as;
• Which brain regions (and mental functions) are most and least affected by hypoxia?
• How is the effect on mental functions dependent on the duration and extent of oxygen deprivation?
• How the individual factors (e.g., age, health, gender, diet, genetic factors, etc...) influence the effects of brain hypoxia?
• How the individual factors (e.g., age, health, gender, diet, genetic factors, etc...) influence the effects of brain hypoxia?
• How do the factors that contribute to decision-making change under normobaric or hypobaric hypoxia?
• How can we effectively measure cognitive and attentional decline under conditions of oxygen deprivation?
• The effect of both hypobaric and normobaric hypoxia on various mental functions including, but not limited to:
- brain neural networks connectivity and functionality
- the speed of processing
- information stored in episodic, semantic, or procedural memory and/or their coding and recollection
- EEG/ERP signals in cognitive, emotional, or perceptual contexts
- moral brain instances related to cooperation and empathy
- vigilance systems
- event planning
- the ability to pay attention to details and to inhibit response to
distractors
- the ability to suppress aggression and engage in goal-directed
behaviour
- psychomotor behaviour planning, preparation, and execution

The purpose of this Research Topic is to attract articles dealing with separate causes and effects of hypoxia on mind and brain, with the aim to better understanding the pathophysiology and the cognitive, emotional, and mental deficits. We are interested in empirical research, reviews or meta-analyses covering the whole spectrum of investigations in the field of Cognitive Neuroscience, Behavioural and Molecular Neuroscience, Psychology, Cognition, Perception, Sports Psychology and Psychophysiology, Neuropsychology, Neuroimaging (EEG/ERP, TMS, PET and fMRI, connectivity, and DTI) studies, as well as clinical studies on psychiatric and neurological patients, athletes, mountain climbers, apnoea divers, naval and aerospace military personnel, and astronauts. The studies might include investigations on patients with severe respiratory syndromes and Covid-19-related deficiencies.