Scientists at the German University of Health and Sports in Berlin found that oxygen therapy can increase motor skill learning by 30%. Research published in the journal Frontiers in Neuroscience.
The new study involved 40 people in whom 20 were given 100% oxygen at normobaric pressure, and the other 20 were given air with 21% oxygen content through the nose using a custom cannula.
Participants were given a simple visual engine task of drawing lines between different targets on a digital tablet using a pen. The task was designed to test how quickly participants were able to integrate information from their eyes and hands, which is an important part of motor learning.
After the task was completed, the researchers tweaked the cursor and stylus settings slightly to see how well the participants adjusted to the change.
100% oxygen therapy accelerated the effectiveness of the training as well as increased it by 30%. Improvements were also made during repeated solutions to the problem when oxygen was not given.
“Our plan for the future is to find out whether this treatment can also improve motor recovery processes after traumatic brain injury. Since this works on young, healthy brains, we expect the effects to be even stronger in neurologically weakened, more vulnerable brains,” the scientists said.
Age, illness, and lack of oxygen can impair the ability to learn motor tasks. 100% oxygen therapy is already used in neurologically injured patients to preserve as much brain tissue as possible.
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