Cognitive assessment during a multidisciplinary high-Altitude scientific expedition organized in the Puna de Atacama (Chile): preliminary results for the MoCAc test carried out in an hypoxic environment

The desire of the University of Atacama (Chile) to develop multidisciplinary research based on the exceptional environmental heritage of the Puna, an ecoregion of the central Andes, has been realised through the organisation of a first high-Altitude expedition. This 10-days campaign, which took place from 22 February to 3 March 2021, was mainly geoscience orientated. However, during the process of acclimatisation to high altitude, protocols were put in place to quantify and evaluate the physiological and cognitive adaptation to high altitude of the people participating in the expedition. Specifically, the MoCAc test, widely used in the assessment of cognitive disorders, was used during this expedition. The preliminary results presented here tend to rule out this test for operational use during a high-Altitude scientific campaign, but allow us to identify avenues for developing a robust test to efficiently quantify cognitive impairment in a hypoxic environment.