TY - GEN
T1 - The impact of long-duration spaceflight on the horizontal Vestibulo-Ocular Reflex
AU - de Laet, Chloë
AU - Kornilova, Ludmila
AU - Glukhikh, Dmitrii
AU - MacDougall, Hamish
AU - Moore, Steven T.
AU - Naumov, Ivan
AU - Schoenmaekers, Catho
AU - Wille, Leander
AU - Jillings, Steven
AU - Wuyts, Floris
N1 - Funding Information:
We would like to thank all participating cosmonauts and crewmembers. This study was funded by the Belgian 463 Science Policy (Prodex), ESA-AO-2004-093. The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 International Astronautical Federation, IAF. All rights reserved.
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - The semicircular canals (SCC) and the otoliths are the two main organs of the vestibular system responsible for balance and gaze-stabilization. Whereas the otoliths as gravity detectors are largely expected to be impacted, the effect of weightlessness on the SCC is much less well understood. Despite the number of studies that have investigated the effect of microgravity on the SCC through horizontal vestibulo-ocular reflex (hVOR) measurements in the past decades, most of those studies were strongly limited by the restricted sample size and the short mission duration. This study aims to characterize the hVOR changes before and after a long-duration spaceflight (>6 months) in an unprecedently large database of 44 cosmonaut experiments. We found a significant decrease in hVOR time constant early postflight (R+1/4) and late postflight (R+9/12) compared to preflight. A partial but not complete recovery was seen 9 to 12 days after their return. These findings reveal that the SCC function is altered as a result of spaceflight.
AB - The semicircular canals (SCC) and the otoliths are the two main organs of the vestibular system responsible for balance and gaze-stabilization. Whereas the otoliths as gravity detectors are largely expected to be impacted, the effect of weightlessness on the SCC is much less well understood. Despite the number of studies that have investigated the effect of microgravity on the SCC through horizontal vestibulo-ocular reflex (hVOR) measurements in the past decades, most of those studies were strongly limited by the restricted sample size and the short mission duration. This study aims to characterize the hVOR changes before and after a long-duration spaceflight (>6 months) in an unprecedently large database of 44 cosmonaut experiments. We found a significant decrease in hVOR time constant early postflight (R+1/4) and late postflight (R+9/12) compared to preflight. A partial but not complete recovery was seen 9 to 12 days after their return. These findings reveal that the SCC function is altered as a result of spaceflight.
KW - HVOR time constant
KW - Long-duration spaceflight
KW - Semicircular canals
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85127297073&partnerID=8YFLogxK
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85127297073
T3 - Proceedings of the International Astronautical Congress, IAC
BT - IAF Human Spaceflight Symposium 2021 - Held at the 72nd International Astronautical Congress, IAC 2021
PB - International Astronautical Federation, IAF
T2 - IAF Human Spaceflight Symposium 2021 at the 72nd International Astronautical Congress, IAC 2021
Y2 - 25 October 2021 through 29 October 2021
ER -