Discussion
hypoxia, cognitive impairments
HYPOXIC, HYPOXIA
In opposition to our hypothesis the composite scores of the three gamified cognitive tests did not detect changes in cognition during moderate hypoxia. Interestingly, Mulitracker (spatial tracking) demonstrated a main effect of condition and agreed with our hypothesis of decrements in performance with moderate hypoxia exposure, while Capacity (working memory) showed a main effect of condition with slight improvements in composite scores during hypoxia exposure. Unfortunately, post hoc analyses of the composite scores for both Multitracker and Capacity demonstrated no difference between conditions. This, along with the lack of detectable cognitive change in Gridshot (executive function), continues to demonstrate how difficult it is to measure the cognitive effects of moderate hypoxia, as noted by others [The premise of this study was to determine if the gamified cognitive tests could provide rapid and objective measures to detect cognitive impairments for personnel during exposure to moderate altitude. While the gamified cognitive tests did provide rapid feedback via a composite score following a 60 second test, there was no clear delineation between normoxic and hypoxic trials. The gamified cognitive tests were designed to asses complex tasks, which are at greater risk of impairment compared to simple tasks at lower hypoxic stress levels [The lack of congruency among previous investigations and the current study may demonstrate the individuality of hypoxic symptom signatures during acute moderate hypoxic stress. Specifically, looking at the individual data points (Figs 