Mental Rotation Effect on Adult Immigrants with Long-term Exposure to High Altitude in Tibet: An ERP Study

Human spatial manipulation ability is sensitive to high-altitude (HA) environment. The present study aimed to investigate the electrophysiological basis of spatial manipulation ability on adult immigrants with long-term HA exposure using the mental rotation (MR) task and the ERP approach. Toward this end, we explored the MR effect in individuals who immigrated to HA areas for three years compared with individuals who lived in low altitude areas. We found that the reaction time related to the MR effect was significantly slower in the HA group than that of the low-altitude group. The ERP component analysis further indicated that the rotation-related negativity (RRN) amplitude was highly corresponding to the MR effect in each group, the RRN amplitude was significantly larger in the HA group than the low-altitude group related to each rotation angle condition. The brain topographical map further showed that only the right hemisphere regions instead of the bilateral hemisphere regions involved into the MR effect in the HA group, which was different to the low-altitude group. Together, these findings might collectively suggest that the mental resource was insufficient as a result of HA exposure which can be reflected on the RRN amplitude, which may help understanding the neural basis of spatial ability change from the long-term HA exposure.