High-altitude exposure induces the decline of spatial manipulation such as mental rotation which is limited by working memory capacity, but the underlying neuropsychological effect remains to be identified. We evaluated the mental rotation task and the contralateral delay activity (CDA) task under hypoxia environment using the event-related potential. When compared with the controls, the behavior response was slowed on two tasks in the high-altitude group. The declined mental rotation and the decreased working memory capacity were synchronously related to the amplitudes of P50 and CDA, respectively. The P50 during mental rotation was positively correlated to that of rotation-related negativity (RRN) component, so was with the CDA. Time-frequency analysis showed that the beta/alpha power in mental rotation and the theta/alpha/beta power in CDA were enhanced in the high-altitude group. The present study might suggest that the decline of working memory capacity induced poor performance of mental rotation, which may be derived from a bottom-up sensory gating deficit reflected by P50.

高海拔暴露会导致空间操纵能力下降，例如受工作记忆容量限制的心理旋转，但潜在的神经心理影响仍有待确定。我们使用事件相关电位评估了缺氧环境下的心理旋转任务和对侧延迟活动（CDA）任务。与对照组相比，高海拔组的两项任务的行为反应减慢。心理旋转下降和工作记忆容量下降分别与 P50 和 CDA 的幅度同步相关。心理旋转期间的 P50 与旋转相关负性 (RRN) 分量呈正相关，CDA 也是如此。时频分析表明，高海拔组心理旋转的β/α功率和CDA的θ/α/β功率增强。目前的研究可能表明工作记忆能力的下降导致了精神旋转的不良表现，这可能源于 P50 反映的自下而上的感觉门控缺陷。