Acute Intermittent Hypoxia to Improve Airway Protection in Chronic Traumatic Brain Injury

Acute intermittent hypoxia refers to brief (acute), repetitive (intermittent) episodes of breathing oxygen-deprived air (hypoxia) alternating with breathing ambient room air.

The vLVC maneuver involves training participants to volitionally prolong closure of the laryngeal vestibule during swallowing, beginning with swallow onset and sustaining closure for at least 2 seconds.

Sham AIH will be delivered using methods identical to AIH, except a normoxic gas mixture (\~21% O2) will be delivered. The gas mixture with normoxic air will effectively serve as a sham.