Abstract
In order to further the insight into the explanation of changed performance in mental transformation under microgravity, we discuss the change of performance in mental transformation and its relationship with altered regional homogeneity (ReHo) in resting-state brain by using simulated weightlessness model. Twelve male subjects with age between 24 and 31 received resting-state fMRI scan and mental transformation test both in normal condition and immediately after 72 hours −6° head down tilt (HDT). A paired sample t-test was used to test the difference of behavior performance and brain activity between these two conditions. Compare with normal condition, subjects showed a changed performance in mental transformation with short term simulated microgravity and appeared to be falling. Meanwhile, decreased ReHo were found in right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and left inferior parietal lobule (IPL) after 72 hours −6° HDT, while increased ReHo were found in bilateral medial frontal gyrus (MFG) and left superior frontal gyrus (SFG) (P<0.05, corrected). Particularly, there was a significant correlation between ReHo values in left IPL and velocity index of mental transformation. Our findings indicate that gravity change may disrupt the function of right IFG and left IPL in the resting-state, among of which functional change in left IPL may contribute to changed abilities of mental transformation. In addition, the enhanced activity of the bilateral MFG and decreased activity of right IFG found in the current study maybe reflect a complementation effect on inhibitory control process.
Highlights
Human is the subject in space exploration activities, whether his activity is normal is the key point for all sorts of space exploration tasks, how the space environment influence individual activities had became a generally focus among space medical and psychological researchers
Microgravity factor is the main difference between space environment and the earth environment, so relevant researches was a hot topic in recent years and there were many significative findings [5]
Compared to normal condition, decreased regional homogeneity (ReHo) was found in right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and left inferior parietal lobule (IPL) in simulated microgravity condition
Summary
Human is the subject in space exploration activities, whether his activity is normal is the key point for all sorts of space exploration tasks, how the space environment influence individual activities had became a generally focus among space medical and psychological researchers. It is commonly believed that individual cognitive and behavioral activities would be impaired in space environment because there are negative factors like microgravity, radiation, noise and fatigue, etc [1,2,3,4]. Among those negative factors, microgravity factor is the main difference between space environment and the earth environment, so relevant researches was a hot topic in recent years and there were many significative findings [5]. Based on this kind of demand, several previous studies had done some excellent work on observing the variation of mental rotation ability under microgravity environment [7,8,9]
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