Breath-hold divers: a relevant model to test adaptability of Hippocampal formation to Hypoxia? – HippoXia

While hypoxia has damaging effects on the nervous system, performance of breath-hold (BH) free-divers suggests that the brain readily adapts to low oxygen supplies. Apnea sports constitute a natural model to study the effects of repeated hypoxic exposure on brain function in healthy individuals. In particular, the hippocampal formation (HF), crucial for episodic memory, is highly sensitive to hypoxia. Lactate produced during hypoxia could promote neurogenesis and contribute to compensatory mechanisms in BH-divers. Our project aims to compare HF structure, function and memory performance in BH-divers vs. no BH-divers to investigate adaptive mechanisms occurring in the brain following prolonged and repeated exposure to controlled hypoxia at distinct time points during training. This will shed light on mechanisms underlying neural plasticity, and open the way to therapeutic strategies for neurological conditions that damage the HF such as perinatal hypoxia.