ArticleScientific reports2023
Impacts of spaceflight experience on human brain structure.
Article in Scientific reports, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Effect of spaceflight experience on human brain structure, microstructure, and function: systematic review of neuroimaging studies.Brain imaging and behavior · 2024Pooled it
- Brain strain: Blood flow and metabolism in environmental extremes.Experimental physiology · 2026Review
- Effects of seasonal factors on brain function: Systematic review and future perspectives.iScience · 2025Article
- Spaceflight and Ground-Based Microgravity Simulation Impact on Cognition and Brain Plasticity.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- Crewmember demographic factors and their association with brain and ocular changes following spaceflight.NPJ microgravity · 2025Article
- Article
- Brain and cerebrospinal fluid 3D center of mass shift after spaceflight.NPJ microgravity · 2025Article
- Changes of EEG beta band power and functional connectivity during spaceflight: a retrospective study.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Is sleep affected after microgravity and hypergravity exposure? A pilot study.Journal of sleep research · 2025Article
- The microgravity environment affects sensorimotor adaptation and its neural correlates.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2025Article
- Beyond the lab coat: methodological challenges in space life sciences.Frontiers in physiology · 2025Review
- Neurological Biomarker Profiles in Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) Pilots and Aircrew.Brain sciences · 2024Article
- Secretome profiling reveals acute changes in oxidative stress, brain homeostasis, and coagulation following short-duration spaceflight.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Dynamic changes in perivascular space morphology predict signs of spaceflight-associated neuro-ocular syndrome in bed rest.NPJ microgravity · 2024Article
- A perspective on the evidence for glymphatic obstruction in spaceflight associated neuro-ocular syndrome and fatigue.NPJ microgravity · 2024Review
- Spaceflight associated neuro-ocular syndrome: connections with terrestrial eye and brain disorders.Frontiers in ophthalmology · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Spaceflight induces widespread changes in human brain morphology. It is unclear if these brain changes differ with varying mission duration or spaceflight experience history (i.e., novice or experienced, number of prior missions, time between missions). Here we addressed this issue by quantifying regional voxelwise changes in brain gray matter volume, white matter microstructure, extracellular free water (FW) distribution, and ventricular volume from pre- to post-flight in a sample of 30 astronauts. We found that longer missions were associated with greater expansion of the right lateral and third ventricles, with the majority of expansion occurring during the first 6 months in space then appearing to taper off for longer missions. Longer inter-mission intervals were associated with greater expansion of the ventricles following flight; crew with less than 3 years of time to recover between successive flights showed little to no enlargement of the lateral and third ventricles. These findings demonstrate that ventricle expansion continues with spaceflight with increasing mission duration, and inter-mission intervals less than 3 years may not allow sufficient time for the ventricles to fully recover their compensatory capacity. These findings illustrate some potential plateaus in and boundaries of human brain changes with spaceflight.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.