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I'm interested if the brain works better when the temperature is higher than usual and the amount of oxygen in the air is a bit lower than in fresh mountain air. This has been my personal experience.

Chuck Sherrington
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  • Can you account for other factors like being less stressed due to being away from work? Also, how do you gauge your thinking ability? – Chuck Sherrington Jul 20 '12 at 04:05
  • @ChuckSherrington 1) I'm not usually much stressed at work, as it is more a challenge to me than a hardship, but after a long day, sure I'm less stressed when I'm home or on vacation. 2) I either can come up with an elegant solution to a problem, or a blunt, but working one, or I can't work at all due to lack of concentration caused by uncomfortability of surroundings (wrong temperature, excessive oxygenation or noise). – user1306322 Jul 20 '12 at 18:20
  • @ChuckSherrington: Infact, after thinking about it and adding the edit, am sure, this question can work in biology.stackexchange too. – Software Mechanic Jul 22 '12 at 06:07
  • @AnandJeyahar I think that's what we're trying to tease out from the OP. I think you made a good effort with the edit, but it was changing too much of the original intent. Certainly comment with your additions and see if the OP is interested in them. It could work on Biology, but it was really not receiving any attention over there. – Chuck Sherrington Jul 22 '12 at 06:16
  • @ChuckSherrington: Yeah, i had the same feeling too.(too much change in the way the question was phrased.) How can i see the edit history? and add it as a comment? – Software Mechanic Jul 22 '12 at 06:20
  • From Anand's suggested edit:EDIT: How does oxygen distribution within the brain happen? Is there a priority? Or as this question points to, what happens when there's low oxygen level? which areas of the brain are most affected? How are blood vessels in the brain distributed and more importantly when and where do they branch, if we follow circulation from the heart? I think these should throw more light on what cognitive functions might be affected. – Chuck Sherrington Jul 22 '12 at 06:56
  • @AnandJeyahar I fished it out for you – Chuck Sherrington Jul 22 '12 at 06:56
  • @ChuckSherrington: Thanks. I still need to get used to the site's Admin interfaces. – Software Mechanic Jul 22 '12 at 07:00
  • I just want my question answered :D – user1306322 Jul 22 '12 at 07:08
  • @user1306322 Well, I think we're trying to tease out some of the details because, as it stands it seems to be anecdotal and potentially confounded by other factors, unfortunately. – Chuck Sherrington Jul 22 '12 at 07:17

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Warmer temperature are shown to raise aggression level (Anderson, et al., 1995). Citing this study, DeWall & Bushman, 2009 found a similar correlation between words associated with high temperatures and hostile behavior. This could be perceived as a threat to clear thinking.

Moss & Scholey, 1996 shows oxygen administration increases memory. However, intermittent hypoxia on developing children led to adverse effects (both mental and physical), according to Bass, et al., 2004. Though, I must say, you can't really determine the oxygen content indoor vs. outdoors without sensors, even if you raise in elevation and who's to say what competing particulates there are between the two environments?

It's known that kinetic motion itself increases neurogenesis, mostly in studies with exercise, like this one. There's been a lot of papers and laymen articles on the subject of exercise and neurogenesis lately. The act of walking or climbing the mountain might contribute a lot to the subjective experience of thinking.

Keegan Keplinger
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