Abstract
Prolonged bed rest may cause changes in the autonomic nervous system that are related to cognition and emotion. This study adopted an emotional flanker task to evaluate the effect of 45 days -6° head-down bed rest (HDBR) on executive functioning in 16 healthy young men at each of six time points: the second-to-last day before the bed rest period, the eleventh, twentieth, thirty-second and fortieth day during the bed rest period, and the eighth day after the bed rest period. In addition, self-report inventories (Beck Anxiety Inventory, BAI; Beck Depression Inventory, BDI; Positive Affect and Negative Affect Scale, PANAS) were conducted to record emotional changes, and the participants’ galvanic skin response (GSR), heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV) were assessed as measures of physiological activity. The results showed that the participants’ reaction time on the flanker task increased significantly relative to their responses on the second-to-last day before the period of bed rest, their galvanic skin response weakened and their degrees of positive affect declined during the bed rest period. Our results provide some evidence for a detrimental effect of prolonged bed rest on executive functioning and positive affect. Whether this stems from a lack of aerobic physical activity and/or the effect of HDBR itself remains to be determined.
Highlights
Head-down bed rest (HDBR) has proven to be a reliable means of simulating the weightlessness that occurs during space flight and replicating its effects
There was no significant difference in mean reaction time (RT) between pre-HDBR and post-HDBR
The results indicated that the participants’ RT in the flanker task increased significantly, the galvanic skin response (GSR) and positive affect scores decreased significantly during the HDBR compared to the preHDBR
Summary
Head-down bed rest (HDBR) has proven to be a reliable means of simulating the weightlessness that occurs during space flight and replicating its effects. A study of Lipnicki, Gunga, Belavyand Felsenberg found that prolonged bed rest had a detrimental effect on executive function Their results showed that participants’ tendencies to engage in high-risk activities increased and reaction time latencies were longer under HDBR [7]. Ishizaki, Fukuoka and Tanaka examined the effect of simulated microgravity that resulted from exposure to a prolonged period of 6u HDBR on executive functions in 12 healthy young men. Studies of short or long duration space flights (bed rest) commonly concerned the variation of individual executive functioning and emotion. Participants were given self-report inventories to record their emotional changes at each test point as well Both subjective and objective measurements were combined to investigate the relation of individual executive functioning and emotion under prolonged HDBR. Our theoretical rationale led us to hypothesize that prolonged HDBR may have a detrimental effect on individual executive functioning and emotion, and HRV may be an effective index to reflect individual executive functioning and emotion changes
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