4 ms·
> Most notably, cognitive speed decreased for all tests except for the DSST, and accuracy decreased for all domains except for spatial orientation postflight. T
by kissickas 8y ago
> Most notably, cognitive speed decreased for all tests except for the DSST, and accuracy decreased for all domains except for spatial orientation postflight. TW’s cognitive efficiency (a combination of speed and accuracy across cognitive domains) was similar pre- and inflight relative to HR but was significantly lower postflight (P = 0.0016, Student’s t test). This postflight decline in cognitive performance persisted up to 6 months postflight in both speed and accuracy domains (Fig. 10C).
This is terrifying to me. I hadn't heard of spaceflight (or the return from it) affecting cognitive function before, but they don't seem to be making it a major issue here - even after it persisted six months later. Does anyone have older sources showing the same thing? I would especially be interested in studies showing the effect over multiple flights and returns to Earth.
- scottie_m 8y agoIt’s not a study, but it’s been hypothesized that radiation and cosmic rays could cause lasting damage of just this sort through particle showers within the brain. Truthfully though there is very little in the way of studies for the simple fact that it’s hard to set one up for astronauts. Given how radically different the environment in space is compared to Earth though, I’m not finding this surprising. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s just the tip of a very dangerous iceberg too, and it turns out that it takes a lot of time and sacrifice to get us to live and thrive somewhere other than Earth’s surface.
- fumar 8y agoWe have a small sample size of humans who have been exposed to space. I wonder what human mutations will be more preferable for space travel. Physical fitness is part of the equation but so is genetic-space compatibility.
- scottie_m 8y agoAgreed. Genentic engineering will probably be helpful, but first we do as you say, have to know what to engineer for. Then of course we’ll have a kind of speciation event and we’ll risk having a kind of genetic apartheid based on people who work in space vs. planetside. It could get sci-fi dystopia levels of ugly if we don’t work to prevent those outcomes.
- wongarsu 8y agoWe already limit astronauts and many other professions based on genetic properties: height, tollerance to high g-forces, eyesight etc. Even things used as health indicators like resting blood pressure are influenced to a significant degree by genetics. I think we will survive adding a few more genetic properties to the job requirements, especially since jobs on planets will vastly outnumber jobs in outer space for the forseeable future.
- wil421 8y agoSounds like Gattaca. It a very slippery slope when you start to genetically engineering people.
- steve76 8y agoMaybe we don't have to go? The particles we refract get heavier. Eventually we'll smash a beam together and what comes out will have it's own gravity. That black hole is 55 million light years away. Perhaps we don't need to go there to get particles to react to it. Get good enough and that old light has some gravity assist to it. Maybe there is some data in that black hole that allows us to point a telescope on the tangent of our solar system, or galaxy and simulate pair production for very fine control of gravitational waves? At some level, our bodies must respond to gravity. Not that they have mind, or are programmed, but they just fall into the place that's empty because of what's around us. If gravitational waves moved the end of a laser, I wonder what control of it can do to really fine nerve endings or mitosis. Perhaps that's what's missing, precision.
- zamalek 8y agoHow do you engineer for space? Increasing telomere length is merely a stop-gap. Random mutations due to solar radiation are exactly the mechanism that evolution exploits to make progress (as well as other sources of entropy), the chemical makeup of DNA is poorly suited to space travel: you can't just genetically engineer that way.
- L_226 8y agoYou shorten the inter-generational period, i.e. make people breed rapidly (in space). The mutations will take of themselves.
- kingkawn 8y agoSeems equally likely this is related to prolonged periods of relative isolation as much as being in space
- mruts 8y agoThey should have put the twin on earth in a simulates space station for a year. Also maybe the lack of bacterial biodiversity was a factor. I used to work analyzing DNA sequences of gut bacteria of MS patients. Surprisingly enough, bacteria affects many things about you, including cognitive performance.
- GhostVII 8y agoI think the point of the study is to see the effects of space when compared to a normal life on Earth, not compared to a life on Earth in similar conditions.
- inamberclad 8y agoOh hey, I was a control for part of that (specifically, short term memory and mental math). It's possible that he was still just tired after all that. I wouldn't read too far into a study with an N of 1.
- dzink 8y agoI wonder if they've equally tested brain performance changes in low-stimulus environments such as an equally isolated cell in a prison on earth. Human senses exposed to variety of stimuli on earth may be keeping the brain more alert than what the space capsule offers.