A new study looking at mental function in volunteers taking part in a long-term simulation of microgravity has results that raise questions about impaired cognition and emotional function during long space voyages.
One of the many challenges with sending humans to Mars is the psychological stamina that will be required. A dangerous six-month voyage in a small spacecraft, with isolation far more extreme than that experienced by astronauts on the International Space Station, will create significant psychological and emotional strain.
And microgravity — when astronauts experience the feeling of weightlessness — may aggravate some of that strain by skewing astronauts’ perception of the emotional state of their fellow travellers, according to the new study, published in the journal Frontiers in Physiology.
Skewed emotional perception in astronauts could create interpersonal stresses that could impair the efficiency of the astronaut team, according to the researchers.
“If we have someone in our workplace that we don’t like, at least we can go home at night — we don’t have to deal with that person,” said Mathias Basner, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
That’s a luxury astronauts on a long mission to Mars would not have, nor would they be able to seek help in a timely manner from mission support staff on Earth due to the distance causing a significant communication delay.
Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield responded to a question during a news conference from the International Space Station in 2013.
“If there’s conflict among crew members, that really could affect the way they operate and actually endanger mission success in the long run,” Basner said in an interview with Bob McDonald on CBC Radio’s Quirks & Quarks.
Simulating microgravity on Earth
Basner led a team that tested the cognitive and emotional function of volunteers experiencing simulated microgravity.
The simulation aimed to duplicate the physical alterations that happen to the brain in space
Without gravity pulling bodily fluids toward the ground, that fluid shifts toward the head, which is why the faces of astronauts returning to Earth after an extended stay on the space station often appear bloated.
Brain scans of astronauts newly returned to to Earth after long stays on the space station suggest that fluid shift also affects the brain.
“It has been shown that the brain is actually pushed to the top of the skull and compress[ed] there,” said Basner.
“The thing is, though, we don’t know what behavioural consequences these structural changes of the brain have.”
NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan was the last of 13 research subject volunteers who participated in NASA’s Fluid Shifts study during his mission aboard the International Space Station. Researchers were studying how the fluid shifts affect vision and the brain, why some astronauts are affected more than others, and what solutions might help. (NASA)
To simulate the upward fluid shift — and the relative inactivity of astronauts in microgravity — the researchers had 24 volunteers spend 60 days inactive in a bed with their heads tilted at a six-degree angle downward.
They were then given comprehensive tests of cognitive function before, during and after the study.
New battery of cognitive tests
Basner said the standard battery of tests NASA currently uses to assess the cognitive performance of astronauts is relatively limited. There are five tests that predominantly focus on working memory, he says.
He and his colleagues devised a more comprehensive set of tests to study a range of mental functions including sensory-motor speed, memory, abstract reasoning, reaction time, attention, flexibility of executive function, risk-taking behaviour and emotional recognition.
According to Basner, all of the test subjects showed an immediate slowing in their ability to perform the cognitive tasks during the microgravity simulation, and that slowness remained for the duration of the the study.
“The one exception was the emotion recognition test,” he said, which got significantly worse.
Impacts on emotional function
The researchers presented the test subjects with photographs of professional actors portraying different emotions — happy, sad, angry, fearful or neutral — with varying intensities.
The more time the study participants spent in the simulated microgravity condition, the slower their responses in the emotion recognition tests became.
“We also saw a tendency that with increasing time in bed rest, they would tend to pick more faces with negative valences, especially angry faces, and less faces that were happy or neutral,” Basner said.
Test participants experiencing artificial weightlessness on a centrifuge. (German Aerospace Center (DLR))
Control subjects who spent two months in bed rest but without the tilt, also showed a similar response in the emotion recognition tests, which complicated the results to some degree.
It’s possible that different elements of the experimental condition — the fluid shift, the isolation, the immobility or even the orientation of the researchers’ faces — contributed in different ways to the cognitive impairment. Basner hopes to disentangle these in future work.
He also hopes to investigate whether artificial gravity countermeasures, like putting test subjects inside a spinning centrifuge to counteract the upward shift in bodily fluid, can protect against these impacts. Limited early trials of this strategy in this study haven’t shown it to be effective.
Basner also cautions that individuals may respond to microgravity in different ways. His volunteers, for example, didn’t receive any special training. The impact of microgravity on astronauts, who are rigorously trained and carefully selected for their mental and physical resilience, may be quite different.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
