Authors: Stefan Schneider Vera Abeln Christopher D Askew Tobias Vogt Uwe Hoffmann Pierre Denise Heiko K Strüder
Publish Date: 2013/01/20
Volume: 113, Issue: 6, Pages: 1617-1623
Abstract
Assessing changes in brain activity under extreme conditions like weightlessness is a desirable but difficult undertaking Results from previous studies report specific changes in brain activity connected to an increase or decrease in gravity forces Nevertheless so far it remains unclear 1 whether this is connected to a redistribution of blood volume during micro or hypergravity and 2 whether this redistribution might account for neurocognitive alterations This study aimed to display changes in brain oxygenation caused by altered gravity conditions during parabolic flight It was hypothesized that an increase in gravity would be accompanied by a decrease in brain oxygenation whereas microgravity would lead to an increase in brain oxygenation Oxygenized and deoxygenized haemoglobin were measured using two near infrared spectroscopy NIRS probes on the left and right prefrontal cortex throughout ten parabolas in nine subjects Results show a decrease of 144 μmol/l in oxygenized haemoglobin with the onset of hypergravity followed by a considerable increase during microgravity up to 534 μmol/l In contrast deoxygenized haemoglobin was not altered during the first but only during the second hypergravity phase and showed only minor changes during microgravity Changes in oxygenized and deoxygenized haemoglobin indicate an increase in arterial flow to the brain and a decrease in venous outflow during microgravityThis study was supported by two grants from German Space Agency 50WB0819 and 50WB1161 A special thank goes to the team from NOVESPACE for a brilliant support Merci We also like to acknowledge the comments of two unknown reviewers which considerably improved the quality of this manuscript
Keywords: