Changes in the human brain, due to spaceflight, have been a challenge to the space program since its inception; a challenge that is becoming more acute as extended International Space Station (ISS) missions become routine, a return to crewed lunar exploration is about to begin, and a multi-year crewed trip to Mars is being planned. Determining the extent to which neurophysiological adaptations may adversely impact performance in operational tasks, assessing the full-time course of these changes, and identifying/mitigating any potential long-term health consequences are crucial steps required to enable safe crew-autonomous, long-duration, deep-space missions. Vision is the predominant perceptual sense used to guide cognition and motor control in humans. Thus, it is critical for the success of any future, long-duration mission to understand how long-term exposure to microgravity and to other stressors of spaceflight and their interactions, impact visual function. This is an especially challenging task given the small and disparate samples from which we have been and will be able to collect human performance data. NASA has recently been carefully tracking spaceflight-induced ophthalmic changes, driven in large part by the fluid shifts related to microgravity. In particular, a recent study of Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) postflight measures revealed that more than two-thirds of US crew members experience significant increases in retinal thickness after 6month or longer ISS missions. Space Associated Neuro-ocular Syndrome (SANS) also includes visual acuity decrements and other ocular structural changes that could adversely impact in-flight performance as missions become longer. However, the impact of spaceflight on the visual system is not limited to the retina. Recent comparisons of pre-and post-flight brain images have revealed structural changes throughout the brain that implicate visual, visuomotor, and visual-cognitive pathways, consistent with observed functional impacts (e.g., decreased speed/accuracy/timing of fine goal-oriented movements). Current limitations on inflight testing make it very difficult to determine when and under what conditions SANS and other disruptions of human neurological subsystems arise. Currently, one cannot anticipate the time course and extent of impairment and recovery. This study addresses this knowledge gap by creating an integrated framework of the relevant existing literature on visual and oculomotor function during spaceflight with an eye towards complementing current structural measures of visuomotor impairment with new oculometric standard measures. Using eye-movement based visual function assessment and diagnostics would provide a valuable enhancement of crew health and performance monitoring in support of deepspace exploration.


    Access

    Access via TIB

    Check availability in my library


    Export, share and cite



    Title :

    An Oculometric Standard to Assess the Performance of the Ocular System for Long Duration Spaceflight


    Contributors:

    Conference:

    International Astronautical Congress 2022 ; 2022 ; Paris, FR


    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English




    Oculometric Surveillance of Neuro-Ocular Function

    Andrew Berneshawi / Rahul Goel / Bryce Hwang et al. | NTRS


    THE EFFECT OF PREVIOUS SPACEFLIGHT ON OTOLITH-MEDIATED OCULAR COUNTER-ROLL IN COSMONAUTS AFTER LONG DURATION SPACEFLIGHT

    Schoenmaekers, Catho / Kornilova, Ludmila / Glukhikh, Dmitrii et al. | TIBKAT | 2022




    Personal growth following long-duration spaceflight

    Suedfeld, Peter | Online Contents | 2012