Intrinsic functional connectivity reduces after first-time exposure to short-term gravitational alterations induced by parabolic flight.

ABSTRACT: Spaceflight severely impacts the human body. However, little is known about how gravity and gravitational alterations affect the human brain. Here, we aimed at measuring the effects of acute exposure to gravity transitions. We exposed 28 naïve participants to repetitive alterations between normal, hyper- and microgravity induced by a parabolic flight (PF) and measured functional MRI connectivity changes. Scans were acquired before and after the PF. To mitigate motion sickness, PF participants received scopolamine prior to PF. To account for the scopolamine effects, 12 non-PF controls were scanned prior to and after scopolamine injection. Changes in functional connectivity were explored with the Intrinsic Connectivity Contrast (ICC). Seed-based analysis on the regions exhibiting localized c

SUBMITTER: Van Ombergen A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5468234 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature