Abstract
During spaceflight, the central nervous system (CNS) is exposed to a complex array of environmental stressors. However, the effects of long-duration spaceflight on the CNS and the resulting impact to crew health and operational performance remain largely unknown. In this review, we summarize the current knowledge regarding spaceflight-associated changes to the brain as measured by magnetic resonance imaging, particularly as they relate to mission duration. Numerous studies have reported macrostructural changes to the brain after spaceflight, including alterations in brain position, tissue volumes and cerebrospinal fluid distribution and dynamics. Changes in brain tissue microstructure and connectivity were also described, involving regions related to vestibular, cerebellar, visual, motor, somatosensory and cognitive function. Several alterations were also associated with exposure to analogs of spaceflight, providing evidence that brain changes likely result from cumulative exposure to multiple independent environmental stressors. Whereas several studies noted that changes to the brain become more pronounced with increasing mission duration, it remains unclear if these changes represent compensatory phenomena or maladaptive dysregulations. Future work is needed to understand how spaceflight-associated changes to the brain affect crew health and performance, with the goal of developing comprehensive monitoring and countermeasure strategies for future long-duration space exploration.
Highlights
Recent advances and renewed investment in human spaceflight have accelerated the timeline for long-duration space exploration missions, including crewed missions to Mars
Maintaining the integrity of the central nervous system (CNS) and the brain during long-duration space exploration is a high priority, because high-level sensorimotor and cognitive processes are essential to many mission critical tasks
Current and future generations of NASA spacecraft have been designed for autonomous flight, the crew must be capable of manually operating the vehicle in case the automatic control fails[5]
Summary
Recent advances and renewed investment in human spaceflight have accelerated the timeline for long-duration space exploration missions, including crewed missions to Mars. The success of these endeavors is contingent on our ability to monitor and maintain human health and performance during the mission. Sensorimotor deficits reported during and after spaceflight include impaired gaze control, reduced fine motor control, spatial disorientation, impaired coordination, postural ataxia, and loss of motor efference[4] Of note, whereas these sensorimotor changes are greatest immediately after gravitational transitions, the extent and duration of some of these alterations have been associated with increased mission length[4,8,9].
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