Alladi S, Bak TH, Mekala S, Rajan A, Chaudhuri JR, Mioshi E, et al. Impact of Bilingualism on Cognitive Outcome After Stroke. Stroke. 2016. Bilingual stroke patients showed better cognitive outcomes compared to monolinguals matched for age and education. Bilingualism may contribute to cognitive reserve, helping preserve executive function post-insult.
Basner M, Stahn A, Nasrini J, Dinges D, Moore T, Gur RC, et al., Effects of Head-down Tilt Bed Rest plus Elevated CO2 on Cognitive Performance. Journal of Applied Physiology, 2021. Researchers examined the effects of head-down tilt bed rest and elevated CO₂ levels on cognitive performance. Regardless of CO₂ concentration, participants demonstrated slower cognitive processing speed after 30 days of head-down bed rest, with performance returning to baseline after 15 days of recovery testing. Understanding the combined impact of multiple spaceflight-related stressors on cognitive function is essential to ensuring mission safety and success.
Bialystok E, Craik FI, Luk G. Bilingualism: consequences for mind and brain. Trends Cogn Sci. 2012. Bilingualism is associated with stronger executive control in children, particularly in skills such as inhibitory control and task-switching. In older adults, bilingual individuals tend to demonstrate greater cognitive reserve and a later onset of age-related cognitive decline compared to monolinguals.
Dev SI, Khader AM, Begerowski SR, Anderson SR, Clément G, Bell ST. Cognitive performance in ISS astronauts on 6-month low earth orbit missions. Front Physiol. 2024. Large NASA studies of astronauts on approximately six-month missions aboard the International Space Station show no clear evidence of lasting cognitive decline. However, certain abilities -such as processing speed, attention, working memory, and risk-taking- may shift temporarily during specific phases of flight, likely due to the unique stressors of space rather than sleep loss alone.
Doroshin A, Jillings S, Jeurissen B, Tomilovskaya E, Pechenkova E, Nosikova I, et al., Brain Connectometry Changes in Space Travelers After Long-Duration Spaceflight. Frontiers in Neural Circuits, 2022. Using diffusion MRI, researchers identified pre- to post-flight microstructural changes in white matter tracts connecting the brain’s hemispheres, linking cortical and deeper regions, and supporting language processing. Some of these changes persisted seven months after return to Earth and were not attributable to normal aging, underscoring the need to better understand how spaceflight affects brain anatomy to ensure safer missions to the Moon and Mars.
Garrett-Bakelman FE. The NASA Twins Study: A multidimensional analysis of a year-long human spaceflight. Science. 2019. During the NASA Twins Study, astronauts showed improvements in spatial orientation and motor accuracy while in flight. However, visual object learning and abstract reasoning declined during the mission. Most notably, processing speed across several cognitive domains decreased after returning to Earth.
Hao J, Chang J, Deng Y. Spaceflight and Ground-Based Microgravity Simulation Impact on Cognition and Brain Plasticity. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 2025. Several MRI studies have shown that long-duration spaceflight is associated with measurable changes in brain structure, including shifts in brain position within the skull, enlargement of the brain’s fluid-filled ventricles, and alterations in gray matter distribution. A recent study further highlights neurobiological changes linked to microgravity, including differences in neural plasticity, functional connectivity, and synaptic structure.
Pusil, Sandra, Jonathan Zegarra-Valdivia, Pablo Cuesta, Christopher Laohathai, Ana Maria Cebolla, Jens Haueisen, et al., Effects of Spaceflight on the EEG Alpha Power and Functional Connectivity. Scientific Reports, 2023. Compared to preflight measurements, astronauts showed reduced alpha brain waves and weaker communication between key brain regions during flight and for up to 20 days after landing, especially when they were required to keep their eyes open. Changes in these brain signals are linked to stress, fatigue, and cognitive strain.
Romanella, S. M., L. Mencarelli, K. Seyedmadani, S. Jillings, E. Tomilovskaya, I. Rukavishnikov, et al., Optimizing Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation for Spaceflight Applications. NPJ Microgravity, 2023. Researchers using Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) found that cosmonauts showed different brain responses than control participants, including stronger activity in motor and language regions of the left hemisphere, with some changes observed from pre- to postflight testing. These findings suggest that spaceflight leads to measurable brain adaptation.
Takács E, Barkaszi I, Czigler I, Pató LG, Altbäcker A, McIntyre J, et al., Persistent Deterioration of Visuospatial Performance in Spaceflight. Scientific Reports, 2021. Compared to preflight baseline, astronauts made more errors and responded more slowly to visuospatial information during and after the mission. EEG findings confirmed reductions in attention, and these sensitive measures revealed subtle declines in attention and memory that had not previously been detected.
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