DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2017.v05i11.079

Pages: 4714-4716

Hyperventilation causes various physiological changes and may lead to altered cognitive functions. This pilot study was done to assess the effect of hyperventilation on digit span forward task. 32 first year medical students were enrolled in the study. The subjects were equally divided into study group and control group. The study group performed voluntary hyperventilation for a maximum of three minutes. Digit span forward task was given prior to hyperventilation and following hyperventilation. The control group were made to sit silently for the same duration .There is no statistically significant difference in the performance between the two groups (P=0.06).However since this is a pilot study; further studies have to be done with larger number of subjects.