What is it about?
When people spend time in space, the absence of gravity leads to headward fluid shifts, which are thought to impact the brain. This study illustrated how the shape and position of the brain change within the skull in the microgravity environment. The superior region of the brain, which includes the sensorimotor cortex, shifts and deforms more than other brain regions.
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Why is it important?
As human space missions become longer and more frequent, understanding how spaceflight affects the brain is essential for astronaut health and performance. This study provides a detailed picture of how the brain physically moves and deforms in microgravity, going beyond earlier work that focused only on overall brain position or volume changes. These findings help identify potential risks of long duration spaceflight and offer measurable targets for testing countermeasures, such as new training or recovery strategies. They also improve the usefulness of Earth based simulations used to prepare for future missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
Perspectives
We hope this study will encourage follow up investigations by researchers in a wide range of disciplines . Important questions to address include how to model the shear forces generated by brain deformation and how such mechanical changes may affect neuronal function. More broadly, this work points to the need to understand the wider physiological consequences of brain deformation, including its impact on brain function as a system.
Tianyi Wang
University of Florida
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Brain displacement and nonlinear deformation following human spaceflight, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, January 2026, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2505682122.
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