This study evaluated the acute and chronic effects of intermittent and continuous Artificial Gravity (AG) on cognitive performance during 60 days of Head-down tilt bedrest (HDTBR), a well-established ground-based spaceflight analogue method. Participants were randomly assigned to three groups: intermittent AG, continuous AG, and HDTBR control group without AG exposure. Task performance and electrophysiological measures of attention and working memory were investigated during Simple and Complex tasks in the Visual and the Auditory modality. Compared to baseline, faster reaction time and better accuracy was present during HDTBR regarding the Complex tasks, however, the practice effect was diminished in the three HDTBR groups compared to an ambulatory control group. Brain potentials showed a modality-specific decrease, as P3a was decreased only in the Auditory, while P3b decreased in the Visual modality. No evidence for acute or chronic AG-related cognitive impairments during HDTBR was found.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41526-024-00405-4 | DOI Listing |
Int J Mol Sci
December 2024
Cell Biophysics Laboratory, State Scientific Center of the Russian Federation Institute of Biomedical Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 76a, Khoroshevskoyoe Shosse, 123007 Moscow, Russia.
Research into the mechanisms by which gravity influences spermatozoa has implications for maintaining the species in deep space exploration and may provide new approaches to reproductive technologies on Earth. Changes in the speed of mouse spermatozoa after 30 min exposure to simulated weightlessness (by 3D-clinostat) and 2 g hypergravity (by centrifugation) were studied using inhibitory analysis. Simulated microgravity after 30 min led to an increase in the speed of spermatozoa and against the background of an increase in the relative calcium content in the cytoplasm.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCells
December 2024
Department of Rehabilitation, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430030, China.
Previous studies have revealed that muscle atrophy emerges as a significant challenge faced by astronauts during prolonged missions in space. A loss in muscle mass results in a weakening of skeletal muscle strength and function, which will not only contribute to a decline in overall physical performance but also elevate the risk of various age-related diseases. Skeletal muscle atrophy in the microgravity environment is thought to be associated with changes in energy metabolism, protein metabolism, calcium ion homeostasis, myostatin levels, and apoptosis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFeNeuro
January 2025
Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Kansai Medical University, 2-5-1 Shin-machi, Hirakata, Osaka 573-1010, Japan.
The subjective visual vertical (VV), the visually estimated direction of gravity, is essential for assessing vestibular function and visuospatial cognition. In this study, we aimed to investigate the mechanisms underlying altered VV perception in stroke participants with unilateral spatial neglect (USN), specifically by examining their eye movement patterns during VV judgment tasks. Participants with USN demonstrated limited eye movement scanning along a rotating bar, often fixating on prominent ends, such as the top or bottom.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFront Bioeng Biotechnol
December 2024
Center for Healthcare Robotics, Korea Institute of Science and Technology, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Introduction: During tasks like minimally invasive surgery (MIS), various factors can make working environment not be ergonomic, and those situations will accumulate fatigue in the surgeon's muscles which will inevitably lead to poor surgical performance. Therefore, there has been a need for technical solutions to solve this problem and one of the methods is exoskeleton robots.
Methods: We designed a passive shoulder exoskeleton whose workspace could be used for MIS to assist the surgeon's movements and performed computational and clinical validation.
Sci Adv
December 2024
McCaig Institute for Bone and Joint Health, University of Calgary, 3280 Hospital Drive NW, Calgary T2N 4Z6, Canada.
Mechanical unloading causes bone loss, but it remains unclear whether disuse-induced changes to bone microstructure are permanent or can be recovered upon reloading. We examined bone loss and recovery in 17 astronauts using time-lapsed high-resolution peripheral quantitative computed tomography and biochemical markers to determine whether disuse-induced changes are permanent. During 6 months in microgravity, resorption was threefold higher than formation.
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