Impaired Attentional Processing During Parabolic Flight.

Anika Friedl-Werner,Martin Hitier,Katharina Brauns,Alexander C Stahn,Marie-Laure Machado,Yannick Liegard,Bruno Philoxene,Stephane Besnard,Costantino Balestra

doi:10.3389/fphys.2021.675426

Abstract

Previous studies suggest that altered gravity levels during parabolic flight maneuvers affect spatial updating. Little is known about the impact of the experimental setting and psychological stressors associated with parabolic flight experiments on attentional processes. To address this gap, we investigated the level of alertness, selective and sustained attention in 1 and 0 g using a Go/No-Go Continuous Performance Task. We also identified several parameters associated with the experimental set-up of a parabolic flight that could be expected to affect attentional processing. These included the use of scopolamine, sleep quality prior to the flight day, participant’s stress level as well as mood and anxiety state before and after the parabolic flight. We observed a deterioration in attentional processing prior to the first parabola that was further aggravated in weightlessness and returned to baseline after the last parabola. Reaction Time, Hit and False Alarm Rate were moderately correlated with self-reported anxiety state, but not cortisol levels or emotional states. The use of scopolamine had minor effects on Reaction Time. Our results confirm previous studies reporting impairments of cognitive performance in 0 g, and highlight important aspects that should be considered for the design of behavioral research experiments in future parabolic flight campaigns.

Highlights

With the resurgence of interest in space exploration and human settlement in space, researchers are seeking to better understand the effects of gravity on the human body and to ensure safe and successful space exploration
At all points in time, d’ exceeded a value of two, suggesting that participants were generally able to discriminate the signal over noise
Hit and False Alarm Rates were further impaired in 0 g compared to 1 g before P0 resulting in a significantly lower d’ [t42.9 = −2.23, P < 0.031, d = −0.64 (−1.26, −0.01)]

Summary

Introduction

With the resurgence of interest in space exploration and human settlement in space, researchers are seeking to better understand the effects of gravity on the human body and to ensure safe and successful space exploration. Stahn et al (2020) and others have shown that spatial cognition is significantly impaired during altered gravity conditions (Grabherr et al, 2007; Grabherr and Mast, 2010; Clément et al, 2016) In contrast to these studies, Wollseiffen and colleagues reported faster reaction times for a complex mental arithmetic task (Wollseiffen et al, 2016) as well as in combination with an oddball task paradigm (Wollseiffen et al, 2019) in microgravity during parabolic flight. To fully understand the effects of altered gravity conditions on neurobehavioral performance, it is important to disentangle the effects related to microgravity from potential confounders associated with parabolic flight maneuvers per se Factors such as an increased stress and anxietly level, especially for first-time flyers, and poor sleep prior to the flight day may impact behavioral measures. A lack of sleep and poor sleep quality, antiemetic drugs, mood, and stress, each of which can confound cognitive and motor performance (Wesnes and Warburton, 1983; Lim and Dinges, 2008; Bestaven et al, 2016), functions that are known to be dependent on the level of attention and selective attention abilities (Carrasco, 2018; Ruff and Cohen, 2019; Song, 2019)

Methods

Results

Conclusion