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Postflight balance control recovery in an elderly astronaut: a case report
William H Paloski1, F Owen Black, E Jeffrey Metter
1Neurosciences Laboratory, NASA/Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas 77058, USA. wpaloski@ems.jsc.nasa.gov
Objective:
To examine the sensorimotor adaptive response of a 77-year-old man exposed to the gravito-inertial challenges of orbital space flight.
Study Design:
Prospective case study with retrospective comparisons.
Setting:
NASA Neurosciences Laboratory (Johnson Space Center) and Baseline Data Collection Facility (Kennedy Space Center). PRIMARY PARTICIPANT: One 77-year-old male shuttle astronaut.
Intervention:
Insertion into low Earth orbit was used to remove gravitational stimuli and thereby trigger sensorimotor adaptation to the microgravity environment. Graviceptor stimulation was reintroduced at landing, and sensorimotor readaptation to the terrestrial environment was tracked to completion.
Main Outcome Measures:
Computerized dynamic posturography tests were administered before and after orbital flight to determine the magnitude and time course of recovery.
Results:
The elderly astronaut exhibited balance control performance decrements on landing day; however, there were no significant differences between his performance and that of younger astronauts tested on the same shuttle mission or on previous shuttle missions of similar duration.
Conclusions:
These results demonstrate that the physiological changes attributed to aging do not necessarily impair adaptive sensorimotor control processes.