Russian cosmonauts have less frequent structural brain changes than U.S., European colleagues - research

MOSCOW. Dec 22 (Interfax) - A research conducted by Russian scientists indicates that Russian cosmonauts are less prone to structural brain changes during long spaceflights than their colleagues from NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), head of the sensorimotor physiology and prevention department at the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS)' Institute of Medical-Biological Problems Yelena Tomilovskaya said.

"New analysis methods were used to assess changes in perivascular spaces of the brain, these are spaces around vessels in the brain. [...] Such spaces broaden after long spaceflights. This cannot be called a pathology, simply a change. The change is much less pronounced in Russian cosmonauts," Tomilovskaya said.

"We saw when we started our analysis that a whole group of NASA astronauts had distinct manifestations of neuroocular syndrome, and it turned out that the astronauts who were diagnosed with neuroocular syndrome had the greatest changes in these neurovascular processes," she said.

It was reported earlier that during long spaceflights certain astronauts developed space-induced neuroocular syndrome that could affect their eyesight. A possible reason is changes in the distribution of fluids in a human body under the impact of zero gravity.