Astronauts May Have Vision Problems Because Of Liquid In Their Brains
Van Ombergen and her colleagues scanned the brains of 11 Russian cosmonauts before and after going to space to determine the effects of microgravity on the brain’s ventricles – chambers that hold cerebrospinal fluid. All the cosmonauts in this study were in space for about six months, so we don’t know if the effect gets more pronounced the longer they spend in microgravity – an important consideration for longer flights, such as a journey to Mars. “We need to really check the brain, check the visual system, check cognition because we do not know if this has any effect on that, and check people who spent different durations in space to tell if the effect keeps increasing,” says Van Ombergen.
Source: www.newscientist.com