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a big portion of the research that's

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being done on people in space on this

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space station especially the one-year

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crew members scott kelly and mikhail

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krienko is designed to learn how a long

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exposure in the weightless environment

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affects the human body

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and that does include the brain

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astronauts who returned from the space

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station have been found to have

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experienced some changes in their brain

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when it comes to things like balance and

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movement and cognition

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there is an experiment called

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neuromapping which will use magnetic

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resonance imaging to look for changes

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in the brains when those astronauts come

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home

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but the neuromapping protocol is keeping

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close tabs on them while they're in

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space too

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my colleague lori meggs at the payload

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operations center at the marshall space

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flight center in huntsville alabama

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spoke with the neuromapping principal

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investigator about her study of the

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brain in space

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i i'm really interested in

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changes that will occur in vestibularly

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mediated behaviors so these are things

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like balance

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spatial orientation figuring out which

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way is up and down

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making decisions processing spatial

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information based on that so cognitive

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and motor behaviors

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and then with the imaging work we're

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particularly interested in brain regions

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that we know

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control these behaviors so things like

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the cerebellum motor cortex

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somatosensory cortex

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these are the regions that we think will

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show big changes

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and we're really interested in whether

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those changes correlate with the

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behavioral effects

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and we're also interested in looking at

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once the behavior returns to normal post

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flight which we know happens for

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most individuals within a few weeks to a

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month

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we're interested in whether the brain

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control of these behaviors has also

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returned to normal or if there are some

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persistent changes as compensation or

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reorganization

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how does that relate to me on earth

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sure so we think this is really

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interesting as well in terms of earth

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for

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firstly because this is really an

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interesting example for studying the

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brain's capacity for neuroplasticity

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so these individuals are exposed to

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microgravity 24 hours a day for either

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six months or one year in the case of

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the one year mission

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so we think we'll be able to really look

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at how the healthy brain can reorganize

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in response to this very profound

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stimulus

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it's also interesting to people on earth

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because

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these vestibular changes that we see in

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astronauts

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are paralleled in healthy aging

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what have you learned from the first bed

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rest study since you've completed that

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is there anything you can share with us

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that you've learned sure i can share

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that we have seen rather profound

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changes in brain structure and brain

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function

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and in some cases these brain changes

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are correlated with the balance changes

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so if you're someone who changes

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structure

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more than somebody else

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in the cerebellum a region that controls

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balance you actually show less balance

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perturbation when you get out of bed

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rest suggesting that the brain is trying

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to compensate or upregulate some of

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these structures

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to adapt to the bed rest environment

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lastly

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why does it interest you to study the

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brain

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fascinating it's one of our our last

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great scientific frontiers understanding

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what makes us human how do we control

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our movements what differentiates one

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individual from another in terms of

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their motor and cognitive abilities

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and space flight is a different way to

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study this a unique way to study it yes

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in my laboratory at university of

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michigan i conduct a number of

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experiments on neuroplasticity

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but in that case i get subjects that

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come into my lab and practice some motor

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behavior maybe for an hour maybe for a

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few sessions but again here i have

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people learning to control movement of

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their body

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in an altered environment that is

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present around the clock for months on