Working memory is a complex cognitive system that temporarily maintains purpose-relevant information during human cognition performance. Working memory performance has also been found to be sensitive to high-altitude exposure. This study used a multilevel change detection task combined with Electroencephalogram data to explore the mechanism of working memory change from high-altitude exposure. When compared with the sea-level population, the performance of the change detection task with 5 memory load levels was measured in the Han population living in high-altitude areas, using the event-related potential analysis and task-related connectivity network analysis. The topological analysis of the brain functional network showed that the normalized modularity of the high-altitude group was higher in the memory maintenance phase. Event-related Potential analysis showed that the peak latencies of P1 and N1 components of the high-altitude group were significantly shorter in the occipital region, which represents a greater attentional bias in visual early processing. Under the condition of high memory loads, the high-altitude group had a larger negative peak in N2 amplitude compared to the low-altitude group, which may imply more conscious processing in visual working memory. The above results revealed that the visual working memory change from high-altitude exposure might be derived from the attentional bias and the more conscious processing in the early processing stage of visual input, which is accompanied by the increase of the modularity of the brain functional network. This may imply that the attentional bias in the early processing stages have been influenced by the increased modularity of the functional brain networks induced by high-altitude exposure.

工作记忆是一个复杂的认知系统，在人类认知表现过程中临时保存与目的相关的信息。研究还发现，工作记忆性能对高海拔暴露很敏感。本研究采用多级变化检测任务结合脑电图数据来探讨高海拔暴露导致工作记忆变化的机制。与海平面人群相比，利用事件相关电位分析和任务相关连接网络分析，测量了生活在高海拔地区的汉族人群在5个记忆负载水平下的变化检测任务的表现。脑功能网络拓扑分析表明，高原组在记​​忆维持阶段的归一化模块性较高。事件相关电位分析表明，高原组P1和N1分量的峰值潜伏期在枕叶区域显着缩短，这代表视觉早期处理存在更大的注意偏差。在高记忆负荷条件下，与低海拔组相比，高海拔组的N2振幅负峰值更大，这可能意味着视觉工作记忆的有意识处理更多。上述结果表明，高原暴露引起的视觉工作记忆的变化可能源于视觉输入早期处理阶段的注意偏向和更加有意识的加工，并伴随着大脑功能网络模块性的增加。这可能意味着早期处理阶段的注意力偏差受到高海拔暴露引起的功能性大脑网络模块化程度增加的影响。