Brains on ICE and in weightlessness: Are our brains ready for extreme environments?

Physical and social environments are key to physiological and behavioral plasticity across species. Extreme environmental conditions can dampen this response, and even have a detrimental effect. Empirical evidence from animal studies shows that social isolation, immobilization, and altered gravity can have profound effects on brain plasticity. Whether these effects translate to humans is not well understood. In this talk, I will argue that spaceflight research in humans provides unique opportunities to gain new insights into the role of experiential diversity on brain and behavior. I will show how acute exposure to varying gravity levels, spaceflight, long-duration bed rest, social isolation, and Antarctic expeditions can affect brain plasticity, and how we can utilize these settings to develop new approaches to mitigate potential adverse neurobehavioral effects associated with such extreme conditions.

Alexander C. Stahn is Professor of Physiology in Extreme Environments at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin. He is Deputy Director of the Institute of Physiology, and head of the working group “Space Medicine & Extreme Environments” at Charité. His research focuses on the effects of spaceflight and extreme environments on brain and behavior. Dr. Stahn is particularly interested in the role of social isolation, sensory deprivation and physical inactivity on the brain, for which he received several grants from NASA, ESA, and DLR. Some of his research on the effects of Antarctic expeditions on the brain ranks currently among the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric. Current major projects include his contribution to the NASA CIPHER investigation, where he is identifying the dose-response relationships between spaceflight duration, brain changes and their molecular signatures. His recent work includes a cooperation with SpaceX to assess brain changes using EEG and MRI in response to short-duration spaceflight in civilian astronauts. He lives with his wife, four children and dog Emma in Berlin.

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WebEx: https://mpib-berlin.webex.com/mpib-berlin/j.php?MTID=maff3dee0ad54cb921191ff33d0b92347

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