Impact of Moderately Elevated Indoor CO2 on Cognitive Performance

Overview

This study investigated the effects of indoor CO2 concentration on cognitive performance across four domains —attention and inhibitory control (stroop test), spatial working memory (corsi task), language based decision making (lexical decision task), and attention and motor coordination (typing test). Across all the cognitive tasks, performance declined when participants were exposed to elevated CO2 levels. Compared to the low-CO2 condition (400-500 ppm), the high-CO2 environment (900-1200 ppm) led to slower reaction times, reducing working memory span, poorer decision-making efficiency, and decreased typing accuracy and speed.To validate these experimental results, an EEG study was re-analyzed, showing similar declines in response time performance under higher CO2 concentration. Overall, these results demonstrate that even moderate increases in indoor CO2 concentration, which is a typical poor indoor ventilation, can negatively impact cognitive performance. These findings highlight the importance of air quality’s role in cognitive performance.

Competition history

• CSEF 2026 Behavioral & Social Sciences (Senior Division) · Entry S-03-04

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