Page 188 - International Space Station Benefits for Humanity, 3rd edition.

of brief electrical pulses. This portable method could
be easily implemented in space and potentially used
to stimulate muscle contractions to counteract lower
extremity dysfunction on long-duration space missions.
This research is improving our understanding of how
the brain reacts to and behaves during spaceflight.
This is a crucial step in the development of appropriate
countermeasures to enable safe and successful
exploration missions in the future, especially when
considering critical crew tasks such as spacewalks
or surface-based extravehicular activity, which could
be hampered by impaired motor control, movement Space experiment Virtual aboard the ISS (2013).
and coordination. Higher cognitive tasks (e.g., working
memory, risk-taking and dual-tasking) might also be Image credit: ROSCOSMOS
influenced, possibly leading to unacceptable risks
and hazards. Research in this area will also help to
determine any potential long-term effects of such
adaptation in space and on return to Earth, and of performance of work tasks, particularly those
to feed into associated recovery and rehabilitation relating to visual tracking accuracy. It is likely that the
planning. Additionally, research findings may have direct unsuccessful docking of spacecraft, errors in structural
and indirect clinical impacts and could be transferred assembly, and other instances of errors in manual
to multiple neurological and psychiatric diseases and control that have occurred in orbit were often caused
pathologies on Earth, such as patients suffering from by disturbances in the function of tracking moving
neurodegenerative disorders or vestibular problems, space objects because of changes in sensory functions.
as well as members of the elderly population who
may be coping with multisensory deficit syndromes, Analysis of data that was accumulated in a series of
immobilization and inactivity. scientific experiments before, during and after space-
flights on the Salyut-6, Salyut-7, MIR and ISS has led
the Institute of Biomedical Problems in Russia to
New Way to Assess Neurovestibular develop a method that uses computerized systems—
System Health in Space Also Benefits named OculoStim-CM, Virtual and Sensomotor—that
Those on Earth can accurately assess the state of vestibular function,
intersensory interactions, spatial orientation, and visual
Among the many problems that have confronted the tracking (Russian Federation patent #2307575 dated
medical sciences since humans first began exploring 10/10/2007, Kornilova L. N. et al.).
space, a main one is adaptation to the conditions
of changed gravitational force. Upon arrival in
weightlessness (the first 3 to 7 days) and upon
the return to Earth (from landing to 3 to 5 days later),
virtually all crew members experience a number
of negative reactions and sensory disorders (e.g., The use of a special test battery
orientation illusions, vertigo, dizziness, problems
focusing on and tracking visual objects), which are makes it possible to evaluate the
perceived as uncomfortable and can be accompanied disruptions that are occurring in
by space motion sickness. various forms of eye movements
In weightlessness, information received from the
vestibular apparatus within the inner ear does not and, given the known mechanisms
align with information received from other sensory of how these movements are
systems; therefore, the typical sensory links are broken
and the brain cannot correctly interpret the incoming performed, to find the causes
signals at the beginning of flight, thereby leading to the of these disturbances.
development of space motion sickness. As a result,
this situation causes a decrease in the quality

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