The simple presence of an astronaut in the International Space Station (ISS for its acronym in English) without doing anything, it is already an experiment. The exploration of the cosmos needs to know the consequences that a human being suffers when he is subjected to conditions different from those that occur on Earth.
It is vital to know every detail of the body’s responses to be able to carry out missions on the Moon, which are close to being executed, and Mars, which is in the not-so-distant future.
The journey to the red planet is long and NASA, together with the rest of the space agencies that will work on this future project, need to know how the human body responds to microgravity.
It is known what happens with the legs and the circulation of the blood, and it was solved with an interesting belt. There are also visual impairments, but little is said regarding what happens with the brain: Does our thinking organ register problems?
What happens to the brain in space?
Magazine GQ echoes a study published in Scientific Reports. In the investigation they report that without room for doubt the brain undergoes changes when it is in the Earth’s orbit. Now, it doesn’t seem like it’s enough to slow down a long-term mission in space.
The scientists analyzed the brains of 15 astronauts before they traveled and when they returned. They ran into problems in the perivascular spaces, especially those who made trips to NASA’s ISS for the first time.
What does this mean of “perivascular spaces”? Well, according to the report, this is among the most common symptoms of those who suffer from neurodegenerative diseases. However, none registered memory or balance problems.
Spaces occur due to the lack of gravity in the environments to which they are subjected. The absence of liquids in the head area, reasons for the vision problems suffered by some astronauts, also cause this situation, which does not seem to be of major concern, in the brain.
“We have all adapted and learned to use gravity to our advantage, but what will happen to human physiology if we have to do without it in the future? After all, nature put our brains in our heads and not in our feet for a reason,” said Juan Piantino, director of the team that did this research.
