Hungarian university studying how the human brain adapts to space with help from the ISS

By involving astronauts working on the International Space Station, researchers at the University of Szeged (SZTE) are investigating how the human brain adapts to the conditions of outer space, the university’s Directorate of Communications informed the Hungarian News Agency (MTI) on Saturday.

Studying how astronauts are affected by zero gravity

According to the statement, during long-duration missions astronauts must constantly adapt to new situations, and their success may largely depend on how quickly they are able to learn new information and make decisions.

A key question, however, is how an environment different from that on Earth affects associative learning – the ability to link two different stimuli or events. If this ability is impaired, it could have a direct impact on safety and performance.

The aim of the study, which involves astronauts working on the International Space Station, is to determine how the complete loss of a sensory system – in this case the vestibular system responsible for balance in a weightless environment – affects the cognitive performance of healthy individuals.

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Study of University of Szeged involved astronauts who work on the International Space Station

Astronauts participating in the research completed tests both in space and under terrestrial conditions. During the learning tests, researchers first used complex visual stimuli presented in a normal orientation, followed by complex stimuli shown in unusual orientations, and finally simplified visual stimuli.