Evaluation of the effect of intermittent hypoxia on learning-memory and respiratory dynamics in rats

Objective: Intermittent hypoxia studies have gained importance recently. It can be said that this is due to the positive effect on living physiology when applied in certain periods. Studies have reported that intermittent hypoxia application increases brain-derived neurotrophic factor and serotonin levels. In other studies conducted in the literature, brain-induced neurotrophic factor and serotonin have been reported to have a positive effect on memory and learning capacity in living. Our aim was to evaluate the effect of intermittent hypoxia on learning-memory and respiratory dynamics. Material and methods: For the application of intermittent hypoxia, two boxes were determined separately for the study and control groups. Oxygen, humidity, pressure and temperature sensors were placed in the box where the study group was located. The inside of the box was monitored instantly and hypoxia periods were formed in this way. The experiment continued for six days and the last day was the hemogram and the learning day of passive avoidance test. Morris water maze test was started. Morris water maze test continued for six days and evaluation test was performed on the sixth day. Results: Intermittent hypoxia showed a significant increase in mean hemoglobin counts per monocyte, platelet and erythrocyte in hemogram test. However, in the intermittent hypoxia periods, the mean respiratory frequency of the study group was found to be higher than the control group. In the passive avoidance test, it was found that the study group learned significantly better than the control group. There was no significant difference between the two groups in Morris water maze test. Conclusion: This study can showed that intermittent hypoxia application had a positive effect on learning-memory. Intermittent hypoxia can be administered in the most healthy way during exercise. In this case, the positive effect of exercise on learning-memory is explained by the respiratory mechanism. In addition, it can be used as a method that can be used in many neural deficits and can be developed into one of the mechanical ventilator modes.