Effects of Long-Duration Spaceflight on General and Spatial Cognition and Its Neural Basis
NCT ID: NCT04856410
Last Updated: 2025-10-10
Study Results
The study team has not published outcome measurements, participant flow, or safety data for this trial yet. Check back later for updates.
Basic Information
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ENROLLING_BY_INVITATION
NA
14 participants
INTERVENTIONAL
2021-08-01
2028-06-30
Brief Summary
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Detailed Description
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Conditions
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Study Design
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NON_RANDOMIZED
PARALLEL
BASIC_SCIENCE
NONE
Study Groups
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6-Month Arm
Astronauts on 6-month International Space Station missions will be exposed to spaceflight for a duration of 6 months. Biometric and cognitive data will routinely be collected.
Spaceflight
Exposure to the spaceflight environment on the International Space Station for 2, 6, or 12 months.
12-Month Arm
Astronauts on 12-month International Space Station missions will be exposed to spaceflight for a duration of 12 months. Biometric and cognitive data will routinely be collected.
Spaceflight
Exposure to the spaceflight environment on the International Space Station for 2, 6, or 12 months.
No Intervention
Subjects matched to 12-month astronauts that stay on Earth and are investigated at similar time points.
Controls
No intervention
Interventions
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Spaceflight
Exposure to the spaceflight environment on the International Space Station for 2, 6, or 12 months.
Controls
No intervention
Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria
2. Normal, healthy volunteers (astronaut surrogates) - Astronaut surrogates will be matched for sex, age and education relative to astronauts
Exclusion Criteria
1. Subjects that do not comply with the MRI testing requirements. The following and other conditions may exclude the subject from MRI scanning or require additional examination to assess specific contraindications:
* Tinnitus;
* Sensori-neural hearing loss \> 30 decibels (dB);
* Pace-maker or internal defibrillator;
* metallic implants (e.g. orthopedic plates after bone fractures, joint replacements, surgical staples or clips, artificial heart valves, stents, cava filters);
* Metallic splinters (e.g. after an accident or due to war injury);
* Non-removable dental brace;
* Intrauterine contraceptive devices (IUD) that are not MRI-compatible;
* Cochlear implant (implanted hearing device);
* Medication pump;
* Acupuncture needle;
* Other foreign bodies/objects which are non-removable;
* Pregnancy (or its possibility);
* Previous brain and/or heart surgery.
* Tattoos and/or permanent make-up in the body (some inks contain metallic particles).
2. Female subjects in this study are either astronauts or will model those in the astronaut population for whom participation in space missions is not allowed during pregnancy.
ALL
Yes
Sponsors
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National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
FED
DLR German Aerospace Center
OTHER
Charite University, Berlin, Germany
OTHER
University of Pennsylvania
OTHER
Responsible Party
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Mathias Basner, MD, PhD
Professor
Locations
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University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Johnson Space Center (JSC)
Houston, Texas, United States
Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin
Berlin, , Germany
Countries
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References
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Basner M, Moore TM, Hermosillo E, Nasrini J, Dinges DF, Gur RC, Johannes B. Cognition Test Battery Performance Is Associated with Simulated 6df Spacecraft Docking Performance. Aerosp Med Hum Perform. 2020 Nov 1;91(11):861-867. doi: 10.3357/AMHP.5602.2020.
Afshinnekoo E, Scott RT, MacKay MJ, Pariset E, Cekanaviciute E, Barker R, Gilroy S, Hassane D, Smith SM, Zwart SR, Nelman-Gonzalez M, Crucian BE, Ponomarev SA, Orlov OI, Shiba D, Muratani M, Yamamoto M, Richards SE, Vaishampayan PA, Meydan C, Foox J, Myrrhe J, Istasse E, Singh N, Venkateswaran K, Keune JA, Ray HE, Basner M, Miller J, Vitaterna MH, Taylor DM, Wallace D, Rubins K, Bailey SM, Grabham P, Costes SV, Mason CE, Beheshti A. Fundamental Biological Features of Spaceflight: Advancing the Field to Enable Deep-Space Exploration. Cell. 2020 Nov 25;183(5):1162-1184. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2020.10.050.
Basner M, Hermosillo E, Nasrini J, Saxena S, Dinges DF, Moore TM, Gur RC. Cognition test battery: Adjusting for practice and stimulus set effects for varying administration intervals in high performing individuals. J Clin Exp Neuropsychol. 2020 Jul;42(5):516-529. doi: 10.1080/13803395.2020.1773765. Epub 2020 Jun 15.
Nasrini J, Hermosillo E, Dinges DF, Moore TM, Gur RC, Basner M. Cognitive Performance During Confinement and Sleep Restriction in NASA's Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA). Front Physiol. 2020 Apr 28;11:394. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2020.00394. eCollection 2020.
Lee G, Moore TM, Basner M, Nasrini J, Roalf DR, Ruparel K, Port AM, Dinges DF, Gur RC. Age, Sex, and Repeated Measures Effects on NASA's "Cognition" Test Battery in STEM Educated Adults. Aerosp Med Hum Perform. 2020 Jan 1;91(1):18-25. doi: 10.3357/AMHP.5485.2020.
Scully RR, Basner M, Nasrini J, Lam CW, Hermosillo E, Gur RC, Moore T, Alexander DJ, Satish U, Ryder VE. Effects of acute exposures to carbon dioxide on decision making and cognition in astronaut-like subjects. NPJ Microgravity. 2019 Jun 19;5:17. doi: 10.1038/s41526-019-0071-6. eCollection 2019.
Garrett-Bakelman FE, Darshi M, Green SJ, Gur RC, Lin L, Macias BR, McKenna MJ, Meydan C, Mishra T, Nasrini J, Piening BD, Rizzardi LF, Sharma K, Siamwala JH, Taylor L, Vitaterna MH, Afkarian M, Afshinnekoo E, Ahadi S, Ambati A, Arya M, Bezdan D, Callahan CM, Chen S, Choi AMK, Chlipala GE, Contrepois K, Covington M, Crucian BE, De Vivo I, Dinges DF, Ebert DJ, Feinberg JI, Gandara JA, George KA, Goutsias J, Grills GS, Hargens AR, Heer M, Hillary RP, Hoofnagle AN, Hook VYH, Jenkinson G, Jiang P, Keshavarzian A, Laurie SS, Lee-McMullen B, Lumpkins SB, MacKay M, Maienschein-Cline MG, Melnick AM, Moore TM, Nakahira K, Patel HH, Pietrzyk R, Rao V, Saito R, Salins DN, Schilling JM, Sears DD, Sheridan CK, Stenger MB, Tryggvadottir R, Urban AE, Vaisar T, Van Espen B, Zhang J, Ziegler MG, Zwart SR, Charles JB, Kundrot CE, Scott GBI, Bailey SM, Basner M, Feinberg AP, Lee SMC, Mason CE, Mignot E, Rana BK, Smith SM, Snyder MP, Turek FW. The NASA Twins Study: A multidimensional analysis of a year-long human spaceflight. Science. 2019 Apr 12;364(6436):eaau8650. doi: 10.1126/science.aau8650.
Basner M, Nasrini J, Hermosillo E, McGuire S, Dinges DF, Moore TM, Gur RC, Rittweger J, Mulder E, Wittkowski M, Donoviel D, Stevens B, Bershad EM; SPACECOT Investigator Group. Effects of -12 degrees head-down tilt with and without elevated levels of CO2 on cognitive performance: the SPACECOT study. J Appl Physiol (1985). 2018 Mar 1;124(3):750-760. doi: 10.1152/japplphysiol.00855.2017. Epub 2017 Dec 14.
Moore TM, Basner M, Nasrini J, Hermosillo E, Kabadi S, Roalf DR, McGuire S, Ecker AJ, Ruparel K, Port AM, Jackson CT, Dinges DF, Gur RC. Validation of the Cognition Test Battery for Spaceflight in a Sample of Highly Educated Adults. Aerosp Med Hum Perform. 2017 Oct 1;88(10):937-946. doi: 10.3357/AMHP.4801.2017.
Basner M, Savitt A, Moore TM, Port AM, McGuire S, Ecker AJ, Nasrini J, Mollicone DJ, Mott CM, McCann T, Dinges DF, Gur RC. Development and Validation of the Cognition Test Battery for Spaceflight. Aerosp Med Hum Perform. 2015 Nov;86(11):942-52. doi: 10.3357/AMHP.4343.2015.
Basner M, Dinges DF, Mollicone DJ, Savelev I, Ecker AJ, Di Antonio A, Jones CW, Hyder EC, Kan K, Morukov BV, Sutton JP. Psychological and behavioral changes during confinement in a 520-day simulated interplanetary mission to mars. PLoS One. 2014 Mar 27;9(3):e93298. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0093298. eCollection 2014.
Basner M, Dinges DF, Mollicone D, Ecker A, Jones CW, Hyder EC, Di Antonio A, Savelev I, Kan K, Goel N, Morukov BV, Sutton JP. Mars 520-d mission simulation reveals protracted crew hypokinesis and alterations of sleep duration and timing. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2013 Feb 12;110(7):2635-40. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1212646110. Epub 2013 Jan 7.
Mendt S, Gunga HC, Felsenberg D, Belavy DL, Steinach M, Stahn AC. Regular exercise counteracts circadian shifts in core body temperature during long-duration bed rest. NPJ Microgravity. 2021 Jan 5;7(1):1. doi: 10.1038/s41526-020-00129-1.
Chouker A, Stahn AC. COVID-19-The largest isolation study in history: the value of shared learnings from spaceflight analogs. NPJ Microgravity. 2020 Oct 22;6:32. doi: 10.1038/s41526-020-00122-8. eCollection 2020.
Friedl-Werner A, Brauns K, Gunga HC, Kuhn S, Stahn AC. Exercise-induced changes in brain activity during memory encoding and retrieval after long-term bed rest. Neuroimage. 2020 Dec;223:117359. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.117359. Epub 2020 Sep 10.
Roberts DR, Stahn AC, Seidler RD, Wuyts FL. Towards understanding the effects of spaceflight on the brain. Lancet Neurol. 2020 Oct;19(10):808. doi: 10.1016/S1474-4422(20)30304-5. Epub 2020 Sep 16. No abstract available.
Maggioni MA, Merati G, Castiglioni P, Mendt S, Gunga HC, Stahn AC. Reduced vagal modulations of heart rate during overwintering in Antarctica. Sci Rep. 2020 Dec 11;10(1):21810. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-78722-3.
Stahn AC, Riemer M, Wolbers T, Werner A, Brauns K, Besnard S, Denise P, Kuhn S, Gunga HC. Spatial Updating Depends on Gravity. Front Neural Circuits. 2020 Jun 5;14:20. doi: 10.3389/fncir.2020.00020. eCollection 2020.
Stahn AC, Gunga HC, Kohlberg E, Gallinat J, Dinges DF, Kuhn S. Brain Changes in Response to Long Antarctic Expeditions. N Engl J Med. 2019 Dec 5;381(23):2273-2275. doi: 10.1056/NEJMc1904905. No abstract available.
Stahn AC, Werner A, Opatz O, Maggioni MA, Steinach M, von Ahlefeld VW, Moore A, Crucian BE, Smith SM, Zwart SR, Schlabs T, Mendt S, Trippel T, Koralewski E, Koch J, Chouker A, Reitz G, Shang P, Rocker L, Kirsch KA, Gunga HC. Increased core body temperature in astronauts during long-duration space missions. Sci Rep. 2017 Nov 23;7(1):16180. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-15560-w.
Strewe C, Moser D, Buchheim JI, Gunga HC, Stahn A, Crucian BE, Fiedel B, Bauer H, Gossmann-Lang P, Thieme D, Kohlberg E, Chouker A, Feuerecker M. Sex differences in stress and immune responses during confinement in Antarctica. Biol Sex Differ. 2019 Apr 16;10(1):20. doi: 10.1186/s13293-019-0231-0.
Provided Documents
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Document Type: Study Protocol and Statistical Analysis Plan
Document Type: Informed Consent Form
Related Links
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Reference article that does not have a pubmed ID yet "Head-Down Tilt Position, but Not the Duration of Bed Rest Affects Resting State Electrocortical Activity"
Other Identifiers
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80NSSC19K1046
Identifier Type: OTHER_GRANT
Identifier Source: secondary_id
50WB2115
Identifier Type: OTHER_GRANT
Identifier Source: secondary_id
843851
Identifier Type: -
Identifier Source: org_study_id
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