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Changes in the characteristics of voluntary movements after long duration spaceflight

Nikolay Osetskiy1*, Vladimir Kitov1, Ilya Rukavishnikov1, Igor Kofman2, Inna Sosnina1, Nataliya Lysova1, Liubov Amirova1, Marissa Rosenberg2, Elena Fomina1, Elena Tomilovskaya1*, Millard F. Reschke2 and Inessa Kozlovskaya1
  • 1 Institute of Biomedical Problems (RAS), Russia
  • 2 Johnson Space Center (NASA), United States

Changes in the characteristics of voluntary movements after long duration spaceflight N.Y. Osetskiy, V.V. Kitov, I.V. Rukavishnikov, I.S. Kofman, I.S. Sosnina, N.Yu. Lysova, L.E. Amirova, M. Rosenberg, E.V. Fomina, E.S. Tomilovskaya, M.F. Reschke, I.B. Kozlovskaya. Exposure to weightlessness in the course of spaceflight (SF) is connected tightly to physiological alterations of vestibular functions, the support deprivation, and a significant decline of the proprioceptive information density (Grigoriev et al., 2004), which affects negatively the ability to control a precision of voluntary movements. These dicturbances are resulted in the appearance of the alterations of complicated and complex movements performance, like voluntary walking, vertical posture standing, and hand-precision movements (Kozlovskaya et al., 1981; 1990; Paloski et al., 1992; Grigoriev et al., 1993; Black et al., 1998; Wood et al., 2015). The characteristics of voluntary movements representing motor reaction tasks have been studied before and after long duration SF. Eleven Russian cosmonauts that were included in the “Field Test” Russian-American experiment performed a series of 4 following tasks: recovery from fall, voluntary walking, a series of tandem (heel-to-toe) walks, and a force discrimination task. Additionally, the severity of motion sickness (MS) was assessed as well, before and after each task by answering a questionary about the rate of their MS symptoms using a 1 to 20 scales from 1 (no symptoms) up to 20 (vomiting). To assess the biomechanical and kinematic parameters of voluntary movements, Emerald inertial measurement unit sensors were placed on the head, torso, trunk, wrists, ankles, and toes (APDM, Inc., Portland, OR). In the recovery from fall task, subjects begin in the prone postion. After a verbal command “go”, subjects come to a stable standing position. The performance metric for this task is the time of the transition from prone to a stable vertical posture. The voluntary walking task included standing up from a chair, walking in a straight line and stepping over an obstacle. The obstacle consisted of a thin metal rod balanced on top of two foam blocks. The walks were performed 3 times, with the obstacle height changed from the 5 to 10 cm, and after that - finally 15 cm. Performance was assessed using the height and length of the step and the time of walk. The tandem walk consisted of 3 trials of heel-to-toe walking for approximately 10 steps, with arms crossed over the chest and eyes closed. For a fourth time this was repeated with the eyes open, with gaze directed ahead. Tandem walk was scored by percent correct steps, assessed from a video recording made during each test session. A step was considered incorrect if there was a large gap between heel and toe, if there was a long pause, if the subject unfolded arms or opened his eyes, if the subject took an intermediate step or crossed over the stable foot with the stepping foot. For the force discrimination task, subjects held a hand dynamometer that measured the force of their squeezes. They were instructed to start with a squeeze with the minimal amount of force possible and continue to squeeze and release with just noticeably higher amount of force until they hit a maximum strength. In this task of grading efforts the number of gradations performed, the number of errors (when the subsequent effort did not exceed or was equal to the strength of the previous one), the minimal force and the average amplitude of the effort increase were analyzed. Baseline data were collected twice prior to the SF: 60 and 30 days before launch (L-60 and L-30, respectively). Post-flight test sessions were conducted in the medical tent at the landing site approximately 1 hour after flight, and then - on the 3-4th, 6-8th and 12th days after the SF completion (R+0, R+4, R+7, R+12 respectively). Statistical data analysis was conducted using ordinary one-way ANOVA with post hoc test Bonferroni, p<0.05 was chosen as a significance criteria. Analysis of the results showed that the most profound changes in characteristics of the voluntary movements were observed at the day of the landing (R+0). The baseline recovery from fall time to stand lasted, on average, 7.9±1.7 s, which was an average over subjects and over the two baseline sessions (L-60 and L-30). The time to stand increased significantly on R+0 up to 14.8±3.0 s (n=9, p<0.0001, t=8.046). On the test day R+4 we still observed a significant time increase to 10.5±2.3 s (n=10, p=0.0148, t=3.125). On the R+7 - R+12 the time to stand did not last longer than the baseline one. The step length during the voluntary walking task for the baseline pre-flight data collections was 1.32±0.1 m (n=4) on average. This step length significantly decreased on R+0 to 0.73±0.08 m (n=2) (p=0.002, t=6.594). In subsequent sessions, the mean length of the step did not vary from the baseline values. Similar changes were observed in the height of the steps: 0.15±0.02 m (n=4) pre-flight as compared to 0.085±0.006 m (n=2) (p=0.0255, t=3.485) on the landing day (R+0). Subjects performed the tandem walk task with 12.10±0.74 (n=10) correct steps, that was significantly lower for this task on the landing day to 3.60±1.34 (n=5) (p<0.0001, t=13.23). Recovery back to baseline performance was not as quick as for the other tasks. We found a score of 5.60±1.71 (n=10) (p<0.0001, t=12.39) on R+4 and 8±1 (n=8) (p<0.0001, t=8.045) - on the seventh day after the landing. On R+12, the score did not differ from the baseline data (Figure 1). The number of gradations performed on the landing day was 23.0±5.3 (n=5), whereas the baseline values were 25.0±8.9 (n=5). No significant difference was observed. The re-adaptation period values were 27.5±8.4 (n=4) on R+4, 30.5±14.0 (n=4) on R+7 and 25.2+6.4 (n=5) on R+12, with no significant difference as well. Subjects motion sickness scores varied greatly within subjects and throughout the test session (Table 1). However, there was some tendencies common for all the participants. After 2 minutes of prone position the symptoms severely decreased in all of the subjects whereas after recovery from fall the symptoms were almost as pronounced as at the beginning of the test. It has to be noted that during the task some of the subjects quit to fully perform the test complaining of the dizziness and nausea which were produced after the fall. Conclusions The results of the study demonstrated a visible decrease of the functional capacities and the significant deterioration of the characteristics of voluntary movements after the accomplishment of the long duration SF as well as extremely low functional performance level immediately after return from space. All the mentioned changes were most pronounced in the acute period of re-adaptation to gravity conditions, that means days R+0 - R+3. These data are crucially important due to the plans for interplanetary missions and future work on Lunar and Martian surface. Further investigations will broaden our knowledge on the subject and collect sensory-motor system recovery dynamic data in post-flight period. The study is supported by the Russian Academy of Sciences (project 63.1) and NASA. Figure 1. The number of correct tandem walking steps (heel-to-toe) performed by the cosmonauts before and after long term spaceflight, n=11; * - significant difference compared to BDC values, p < 0,05; @ - significant difference compared to R+0 difference, p < 0,05. Table 1. Motion sickness score (0-20 scale) in 11 cosmonauts during the Field Test experiment performance at the landing day (during the 1st hour after landing). Primary evaluation – evaluation before the beginning of the test, before sts – evaluation before “sit-to-stand” task, before fr – evaluation before “fall recovery” task, after fr – evaluation after “fall recovery” task, before first walk (obstacle) – evaluation before the first “walking with obstacle avoidance” task, after first walk (obstacle) – evaluation after the first “walking with obstacle avoidance” task, before first tandem walk – evaluation before the first “tandem walk” task, after first tandem walk – evaluation after the first “tandem walk” task. n/d – the absence of data due to the termination of the experiment.

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References

References 1. Grigoriev, A.I., Kozlovskaya, I.B., and Shenkman, B.S. (2004). Role of support afferentation in organizing the tonic muscular system. Russian physiology J. by I.M. Sechenov. 5, 508-521. 2. Black, F. O., and Paloski, W. H. (1998). Computerized dynamic posturography: What have we learned from space? Otolaryngology--head and neck surgery : ofcial lournal of American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery 118, S45-51. doi: 10.1016/S0194-59989870009-9 3. Kozlovskaya, I. B., Barmin, V. A., Stepantsov, V. I., and Kharitonov, N. M. (1990). Results of studies of motor functons in long-term space fights. The Physiologist 33, S1-3. 4. Kozlovskaya, I. B., Kreidich, Y., Oganov, V. S., and Koserenko, O. P. (1981). Pathophysiology of motor functions in prolonged manned space fights. Acta astronautca 8, 1059–1072. 5. Paloski, W. H., Reschke, M. F., Black, F. O., Doxey, D. D., and Harm, D. L. (1992). Recovery of postural equiliirium control following spacefight. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 656, 747–754. 6. Wood, S. J., Paloski, W. H., and Clark, J. B. (2015). Assessing Sensorimotor Functon Following ISS with Computerized Dynamic Posturography. Aerospace medicine and human performance 86, 45–53. doi:10.3357/AMHP.EC07.2015

Keywords: spaceflight, voluntary movement, Physiology, Motion Sickiness, Posture, microgravity, afferentation, Fall recovery, Dynamometer

Conference: 39th ISGP Meeting & ESA Life Sciences Meeting, Noordwijk, Netherlands, 18 Jun - 22 Jun, 2018.

Presentation Type: Extended abstract

Topic: Neurosciences and psychology

Citation: Osetskiy N, Kitov V, Rukavishnikov I, Kofman I, Sosnina I, Lysova N, Amirova L, Rosenberg M, Fomina E, Tomilovskaya E, Reschke MF and Kozlovskaya I (2019). Changes in the characteristics of voluntary movements after long duration spaceflight. Front. Physiol. Conference Abstract: 39th ISGP Meeting & ESA Life Sciences Meeting. doi: 10.3389/conf.fphys.2018.26.00042

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Received: 02 Dec 2018; Published Online: 16 Jan 2019.

* Correspondence:
MD. Nikolay Osetskiy, Institute of Biomedical Problems (RAS), Moscow, Russia, n.osetskiy@gmail.com
PhD. Elena Tomilovskaya, Institute of Biomedical Problems (RAS), Moscow, Russia, finegold@yandex.ru