Mount Everest: a space analogue for speech monitoring of cognitive deficits and stress.

In deep-space missions, the basal ganglia and hippocampus, subcortical structures of the brain that play critical roles in motor activity, cognition, and memory, will be vulnerable to damage from cosmic rays. These metabolically active structures are also sensitive to damage arising from the low oxygen content of air at extreme altitudes. We have, therefore, used Mount Everest as an analogue for deep space, where astronauts will be subject to danger and stress as well as neural damage.