Nasrini Jad, Hermosillo Emanuel, Dinges David F, Moore Tyler M, Gur Ruben C, Basner Mathias
Unit for Experimental Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, United States.
Brain Behavior Laboratory, Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, United States.
Front Physiol. 2020 Apr 28;11:394. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2020.00394. eCollection 2020.
Maintaining optimal cognitive performance in astronauts during spaceflight is critical to crewmember safety and mission success. To investigate the combined effects of confinement, isolation, and sleep deprivation on cognitive performance during spaceflight, we administered the computerized neurobehavioral test battery "Cognition" to crew members of simulated spaceflight missions as part of NASA's ground-based Human Exploration Research Analog project. Cognition was administered to = 32 astronaut-like subjects in four 1-week missions (campaign 1) and four 2 weeks missions (campaign 2), with four crewmembers per mission. In both campaigns, subjects performed significantly faster on Cognition tasks across time in mission without sacrificing accuracy, which is indicative of a learning effect. On an alertness and affect survey, subjects self-reported significant improvement in several affective domains with time in mission. During the sleep restriction challenge, subjects in campaign 1 were significantly less accurate on a facial emotion identification task during a night of partial sleep restriction. Subjects in campaign 2 were significantly slower and less accurate on psychomotor vigilance, and slower on cognitive throughput and motor praxis tasks during a night of total sleep deprivation. On the survey, subjects reported significantly worsening mood during the sleep loss challenge on several affective domains. These findings suggest that confinement and relative isolation of up to 2 weeks in this environment do not induce a significant negative impact on cognitive performance in any of the domains examined by Cognition, although the concurrent practice effect may have masked some of the mission's effects. Conversely, a night of total sleep deprivation significantly decreased psychomotor vigilance and cognitive throughput performance in astronaut-like subjects. This underscores the importance of using cognitive tests designed specifically for the astronaut population, and that survey a range of cognitive domains to detect the differential effects of the wide range of stressors common to the spaceflight environment.
在太空飞行期间保持宇航员的最佳认知表现对于机组人员的安全和任务成功至关重要。为了研究限制、隔离和睡眠剥夺对太空飞行期间认知表现的综合影响，作为美国国家航空航天局（NASA）地面人类探索研究模拟项目的一部分，我们对模拟太空飞行任务的机组人员进行了计算机化神经行为测试组“认知”测试。在四个为期1周的任务（活动1）和四个为期2周的任务（活动2）中，对32名类似宇航员的受试者进行了“认知”测试，每个任务有四名机组人员。在这两个活动中，受试者在任务期间随着时间推移在“认知”任务上的表现显著加快，且不牺牲准确性，这表明存在学习效应。在一项警觉性和情感调查中，受试者自我报告随着任务时间的推移，在几个情感领域有显著改善。在睡眠限制挑战期间，活动1中的受试者在部分睡眠限制的一晚，在面部情绪识别任务上的准确性显著降低。活动2中的受试者在完全睡眠剥夺的一晚，在心理运动警觉性方面显著变慢且准确性降低，在认知吞吐量和运动技能任务上也变慢。在调查中，受试者报告在睡眠缺失挑战期间，在几个情感领域的情绪显著恶化。这些发现表明，在这种环境中长达2周的限制和相对隔离，不会对“认知”测试所考察的任何领域的认知表现产生显著负面影响，尽管同时存在的练习效应可能掩盖了一些任务的影响。相反，一晚的完全睡眠剥夺显著降低了类似宇航员受试者的心理运动警觉性和认知吞吐量表现。这凸显了使用专门为宇航员群体设计的认知测试的重要性，这些测试能够调查一系列认知领域，以检测太空飞行环境中常见的各种应激源的不同影响。
