J Korean Acad Rehabil Med.  2005 Feb;29(1):38-42.

Changes in Activity of Human Motor Cortex Caused by Hyperbaric Air Therapy

• Kim TH
• Jung HY

Abstract

OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the effect of hyperbaric air therapy (HAT) on activity of cerebral motor cortex METHOD: Eighteen right-handed subjects were recruited, who had no brain lesion and did not take any medication that can affect brain function. Experimental group (n=9) underwent motor evoked potential (MEP) study by transcranial magnetic stimulation before and after 1-hour HAT. Control group (n=9) also received motor evoked potential study twice with 1 hour interval. The cortical activity was evaluated with parameters such as resting motor threshold (rMT), amplitude of MEP, intracortical inhibition (ICI) and intracortical facilitation (ICF) and recruitment curve (RC). RESULTS: There was no significant difference of rMT, MEP, ICI, ICF and RC between experimental group and control group. CONCLUSION: One -hour hyperbaric air therapy could not modulate any cortical motor activity in health human brain.

Keyword

Hyperbaric air therapy; Motor cortical activity; Transcranial magnetic stimulation

MeSH Terms

Brain
Evoked Potentials, Motor
Humans*
Motor Activity
Motor Cortex*
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation