Effects of Inverted Vision on Pointing and Grasping in Parabolic Flight

NCT ID: NCT02885844

Last Updated: 2016-09-01

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: UNKNOWN
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 18 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2014-09-30
• Study Completion Date: 2017-10-31

Brief Summary

Parabolic flight is the only ground-based condition in which weightlessness (0G) can be created long enough for safely testing changes in human perception and behavior. In addition to the 0G period, parabolic flight generates equal duration periods of 1.8G, which present another unique opportunity to test the same responses to hypergravity and back to 1G.

Spatial orientation perception is a critical subsystem that is used by the central nervous system in the control of vehicles and other complex systems in a high-level integrative function. Evidence from space flight research demonstrates that spatial orientation is altered by the transitions in gravito-inertial force levels (Clément 2011; Clément & Reschke 2008), transitions corresponding to mission phases particularly critical for crew safety and mission success. Accurate perception of self-in-space motion and self-motion relative to other objects is critical for successful operations that involve motor control e.g. doing an extra-vehicule activity or piloting the spacecraft. To date, there is only limited operational evidence that these alterations cause functional impacts on mission-critical operations and control capabilities. Immediately after space flight, most crewmembers have reported some degree of disorientation/perceptual illusion, often accompanied by nausea (or other symptoms of motion sickness), and frequently manifested by lack of coordination, particularly during locomotion The hypothesis is that alteration in sensorimotor performance induced by inverted vision is gravity depend: maximum alteration during hypergravity, intermediary alteration during normal gravity, minimal alteration during weightlessness.

Conditions

Pointing Task; Gasping Task

Study Design

• Allocation Method: NON_RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: CROSSOVER
• Primary Study Purpose: BASIC_SCIENCE
• Blinding Strategy: NONE

Study Groups

INVERTED VISION

inverted vision (upside down) using commercial off-the-shelf inverting prism goggles

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

INVERTED VISION

Intervention Type: PROCEDURE

The tasks will be performed either with normal or inverted vision (upside down) using commercial off-the-shelf inverting prism goggles

NORMAL VISION

During normal vision trials, subject's field of view will be restricted by goggles without lenses (see below) in order to be equivalent to the inverted vision one.

Group Type: ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

NORMAL VISON

Intervention Type: PROCEDURE

subject's field of view will be restricted by goggles without lenses in order to be equivalent to the inverted vision one.

Interventions

INVERTED VISION

The tasks will be performed either with normal or inverted vision (upside down) using commercial off-the-shelf inverting prism goggles

Intervention Type: PROCEDURE

NORMAL VISON

subject's field of view will be restricted by goggles without lenses in order to be equivalent to the inverted vision one.

Intervention Type: PROCEDURE

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• Subjects will be staff member of the team or of other teams participating in the parabolic flight campaign
• Healthy volunteers (men or women)
• Aged from 21 to 65
• Affiliated to a Social Security system and, for non-French resident, holding a European Health Insurance Card (EHIC)
• Who accepted to take part in the study
• Who have given their written stated consent
• Who has passed a medical examination similar to a standard aviation medical examination for private pilot aptitude (JAR FCL3 Class 2 medical examination). There will be no additional test performed for subject selection.

Exclusion Criteria

• Person who took part in a previous biomedical research protocol, of which exclusion period is not terminated
• Person with medical history of oculomotor disorders
• Person with medical history of vestibular disorders
• Pregnant women

• Minimum Eligible Age: 21 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 65 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Sponsors

International Space University

UNKNOWN

Sponsor Role: collaborator

University Hospital, Caen

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Responsibility Role: SPONSOR

Principal Investigators

Clément GC Gilles

Role: STUDY_DIRECTOR

International Space University

Locations

CHU Caen

Caen, , France

Site Status: RECRUITING

Countries

France

Central Contacts

Pierre DP Denise, PhD

Role: CONTACT

pierre.denise@unicaen.fr

02.31.06.81.32 ext. +33

Other Identifiers

2014-A00813-44

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id

NCT02517203

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: nct_alias