Neural activation is enhanced with operational task ecological validity during complex cognitive tasks.

Introduction: Extended exposure to a microgravity environment has been related to cognitive and neural decrements in astronauts, including changes in brain morphology and connectivity. Future long-duration exploration missions, such as those to Mars, will require the development of new countermeasures to counteract these decrements. Training in virtual reality (VR) has been identified as a promising potential countermeasure. Though there has been extensive research into VR as a tool for neurorehabilitation and microcognitive testing, little is understood about the neural effects of training in VR for operationally relevant tasks. Methods: This research utilized functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and electroencepholography (EEG) to measure neural activation during task completion in a VR environment with spaceflight-relevant tasks as compared to one with microcognitive corollary tasks. Results: We find that a complex, operationally relevant VR environment elicits enhanced brain activation compared to the matching corollary tasks designed to target equivalent specific cognitive domains, for both EEG ( Discussion: These results indicate that brain activation and recruitment is increased when the task has higher ecological validity, providing an objective assessment to inform countermeasure development for spaceflight associated neural decrements.