Monitoring Cognitive Brain Function Before and After Spaceflight: Feasibility of Brain Vital Signs

Space exploration provides a unique opportunity to study human physiology under extreme conditions, such as microgravity and radiation exposure. A thorough understanding of both cognitive performance and neurophysiological adaptations in this extreme condition is missing in previous literature. This study is a methodological demonstration of comparing cognitive performance and electroencephalography (EEG) brain vital signs in 2 astronauts before, shortly after, and 5 months following a 17-d mission to the International Space Station. Cognitive task performance remained consistent between pre- and post-spaceflight measures. Similarly, EEG brain vital signs revealed minimal change in the time-frequency domain. These findings suggest that short-duration spaceflight, combined with sufficient Earth adaptation time, showed no major decrements in cognitive and neurophysiological function. This study underscores for the first time the feasibility for EEG brain vital sign approaches to monitor brain health and investigate brain function at an individual level, which is critical during space missions.