A new study by NASA reveals that while long-duration spaceflight can cause physical changes like bone decalcification and muscle atrophy, it appears to have a minimal impact on astronauts' intellectual and behavioral abilities. Research involving 25 astronauts and 10 cognitive tests conducted before, during, and after six-month rotations on the International Space Station showed that astronauts generally maintained their cognitive function despite the challenges of space travel.
The crew of NASA ’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission to the International Space Station poses for a photo during a crew equipment interface test, bones can decalcify, muscles can atrophy, blood pressure can plunge, heart rate can grow erratic, and fluids can rise and pool in the head, leading to pain, congestion, vision problems, and even kidney stones as less water is flushed and excreted as urine.
“Even on Earth, processing speed, working memory, and attention are cognitive domains that can show temporary changes when an individual is under stress,” said Dev in a statement that accompanied the release of the study. “If you happen to have a really busy day, but couldn’t get much sleep the night before, you might feel like it’s hard to pay attention, or that you need more time to complete tasks.
In one test called the Visual Object Learning Task, for example, they were shown three-dimensional figures, instructed to memorize them, and then required to pick them out of a later, larger assortment of shapes. In the Emotion Recognition Task, they were shown photographs of people exhibiting a range of emotions and told to identify them as either happy, sad, angry, fearful, or emotionless.
Performance on the emotion recognition task improved throughout the mission—an overall plus when it comes to living and working with other people in close quarters. Risk tolerance, as evidenced by the balloon test, declined over the six months in space, with the astronauts showing less inclination to pump the balloon to bursting—a result, perhaps, of an overall tendency toward caution bred of living in an inherently dangerous environment.
Astronauts Spaceflight Cognitive Function International Space Station NASA
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