Moscow: During prolonged orbital
flights space crews lose some skills of tackling logical
problems, a preliminary study has said.
"The results of examinations held on board the
International Space State last year indicate certain problems
with reproducing adaptive biocontrol skills in dealing with
logical problems and tasks, something not observed in handling
spatial tasks," the experiment's chief, Tatyana Yershova said.
The preliminary conclusions made by scientists at the
Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medical and
Biological Problems were presented at the 34th international
academic conference on astronautics this week.
Yershova recalled that all tasks and problems ISS
crews are expected to deal with fall within two categories -
spatial ones (maneuvering, docking, extra-vehicular activity),
and logical ones (examination of the station's condition,
maintenance and repairs of ISS systems and others).
For evaluating the crews' psychological aptitude for
doing certain jobs, researchers probed into the ability to
retain adaptive biocontrol skills using the bioelectric
activity of the brain.
"At the beginning of the experiment we record a sample
encephalogram, and then we turn the computer game on,
imitating this or that type of activity. Then there follows a
ten-minute test training session, and finally, a computer game
simulating the other type of activity is switched on,"
Yershova said.
PTI
First Published: Saturday, January 30, 2010, 14:34