Can Space Travel Alter Our Brains?

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Our brains evolve as we get older and mature on this planet. So what occurs to the human mind after spending an extended period of time in space?

Researchers have investigated how cosmonauts’ brains change after going to and from space in a new study conducted in collaboration with the European Space Agency and Russia’s space agency Roscosmos. Also shown was the brain’s adaptation to space travel, with the discovery that the brain is nearly “rewired,” both fluid shifts and form modifications occurring. According to the experts, these alterations might endure for many months after an individual came back To earth.

As per the experts, the odd brain alterations that the team discovered were completely unanticipated and completely new to them. The brains of 12 men cosmonauts were tested by a multinational scientific group immediately before and after their trips to the International Space Station for this study. In addition, they examined the brains of the same cosmonauts seven months following their returned to Earth. Everyone included in this research flew on long missions that spanned, on average, 172 days (or little more than 5 1/2 months), according to the findings.

The researchers used a brain imaging method known as fiber tractography, which is a 3D reconstruction approach that employs information from MRI (magnetic resonance imaging), or dMRI scans, to investigate the layout and connectivity of the brain’s networks.

The study’s results

The scientists discovered an elevation in both gray and white matter in the brain. White matter in the mind enhances connectivity between gray matter as well as communication involving gray matter as well as the entire body, according to researchers. Besides changes in fluid dynamics, the scientists observed structural alterations inside and around the brain’s corpus callosum, which is a vast tangle of nerve fibers that serves as a major highway linking the brain hemispheres.

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