Africa-Press – Liberia. The researchers want to understand how spaceflight affects human bodies in order to further “the exploration of the final frontier.” A new study conducted by an international team of researchers under the auspices of a collaboration between the European Space Agency and Roscosmos has revealed that long-term spaceflights lead to changes in the brain structure of cosmonauts involved.
During their research, the team examined diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) data collected from 12 cosmonauts who spent an average of six months onboard the International Space Station (ISS), with the scans being conducted before and after the flight.
Using a brain imaging technique known as fibre tractography, the team “found significant microstructural changes in several large white matter tracts, such as the corpus callosum, arcuate fasciculus, corticospinal, corticostriatal, and cerebellar tracts,” according to the study results published in the Frontiers in Neural Circuits journal.
As Neuroscience News explains, white matter “refers to the parts of the brain that are responsible for communication between gray matter and the body and between various gray matter regions,” with grey matter essentially handling the information processing and white matter being “the channel of communication of the brain.”
The team also confirmed that these changes were visible on scans taken seven months after the spaceflight. The researchers further argued that their findings highlight the necessity of gaining an understanding of how spaceflight affects human bodies, “for the exploration of the final frontier.”
The researchers noted that while countermeasures for “muscle and bone loss” do exist, “if future research provides evidence that countermeasures are necessary for the brain, then we must begin to answer this challenging question.”
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