Going to space is tough on the human body, and new research from our research team shows that after spaceflight, the brain moves upwards and backwards, deforming inside the skull.
The magnitude of these changes was greater for those who spent longer in space. These discoveries will become more important as NASA plans longer space missions and space travel expands beyond professional astronauts.
why is it important
On Earth, gravity constantly pulls the fluids in your body and brain toward the center of the Earth. In space, that power disappears. The fluid moves towards the head and the astronaut’s face becomes swollen. Under normal gravity, the brain, cerebrospinal fluid, and surrounding tissues reach a stable balance. In microgravity, that balance changes.
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Without gravity pulling down, the brain floats inside the skull and is subject to various forces from surrounding soft tissues and the skull itself. Previous studies have shown that the brain is located higher in the skull after spaceflight. However, most of these studies focused on average or whole-brain measurements, which may hide important effects in different brain regions.
Our goal was to take a closer look.
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how we work
We analyzed MRI scans of the brains of 26 astronauts who spent varying amounts of time in space, from a few weeks to more than a year. To focus on brain movement, each person’s skull was aligned across scans taken before and after the spaceflight.
This comparison allowed them to measure how the brain changed relative to the skull itself. Rather than treating the brain as a single object, they divided it into more than 100 regions and tracked how each region changed. This approach allowed them to see patterns that were missed when looking at the whole brain on average.
Comparing post-flight and pre-flight, they found that the brain moved consistently upward and backward. The longer someone stays in space, the greater the changes. One of the more striking findings came from looking at individual brain regions.
In astronauts who spent about a year aboard the International Space Station, some areas near the top of their brains moved upward by more than 2 millimeters, while the rest of their brains barely moved. That distance may seem small, but in the dense space of the skull, it makes sense.
Areas involved in movement and sensation showed the greatest changes. Structures on both sides of the brain moved toward the midline. This means that each brain hemisphere moved in the opposite direction. These opposing patterns cancel each other out on average across the brain. This explains why earlier studies missed them.
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Most movements and deformations gradually returned to normal by 6 months after return to Earth. Recovery was slower when moving backwards, likely because gravity pulls downward rather than forward, and some effects of spaceflight on brain position may last longer than others.
what’s next
NASA’s Artemis program will mark a new era in space exploration. Understanding how the brain responds can help scientists assess long-term risks and develop countermeasures.
Our findings don’t mean people shouldn’t travel to space. Although we found that greater changes in the location of brain areas responsible for sensory processing correlated with post-flight balance changes, the crew members did not experience overt symptoms such as headaches or brain fog associated with changes in brain location.
Our findings do not reveal any immediate health risks. Knowing how the brain moves during spaceflight and recovers afterwards will help researchers understand the effects of microgravity on human physiology. Help space agencies design safer missions.
This edited article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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