Strangman Gary E, Sipes Walter, Beven Gary
Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
Aviat Space Environ Med. 2014 Oct;85(10):1033-48. doi: 10.3357/ASEM.3961.2014.
Maintaining intact cognitive performance is a high priority for space exploration. This review seeks to summarize the cumulative results of existing studies of cognitive performance in spaceflight and analogue environments. We focused on long-duration (>21 d) studies for which no review has previously been conducted. There were 11 published studies identified for long-duration spaceflight (N = 42 subjects) as well as 21 shorter spaceflight studies (N = 70 subjects). Overall, spaceflight cognitive studies ranged from 6-438 d in duration. Some 55 spaceflight analogue studies were also identified, ranging from 6 to 520 d. The diverse nature of experimental procedures and protocols precluded formal meta-analysis. In general, the available evidence fails to strongly support or refute the existence of specific cognitive deficits in low Earth orbit during long-duration spaceflight, which may be due in large part to small numbers of subjects. The studies consistently suggest that novel environments (spaceflight or other) induce variable alterations in cognitive performance across individuals, consistent with known astronaut experiences. This highlights the need to better quantify the magnitude and scope of this interindividual variability, and understand its underlying factors, when predicting in-flight cognitive functioning for extended periods.
保持完整的认知能力对于太空探索至关重要。本综述旨在总结现有关于太空飞行和模拟环境中认知能力研究的累积结果。我们重点关注此前未进行过综述的长期(>21天)研究。共确定了11项关于长期太空飞行的已发表研究(N = 42名受试者)以及21项短期太空飞行研究(N = 70名受试者)。总体而言,太空飞行认知研究的时长从6天至438天不等。还确定了约55项太空飞行模拟研究,时长从6天至520天不等。实验程序和方案的多样性使得无法进行正式的荟萃分析。一般来说,现有证据未能有力支持或反驳长期太空飞行期间近地轨道存在特定认知缺陷的说法,这在很大程度上可能是由于受试者数量较少。这些研究一致表明,新环境(太空飞行或其他)会导致个体间认知能力发生不同变化,这与宇航员的实际经历相符。这凸显出在预测长期飞行中的认知功能时,需要更好地量化这种个体间差异的程度和范围,并了解其潜在因素。