Effects of 15-Day -6° Head-Down Bed Rest and HD-tDCS on Cognitive Functions

A favorable cognitive state, efficient attention, and sharp alertness are essential for successful space missions. To explore the effects of microgravity on working memory, attention, and alertness and to find effective approaches to improve them, we recruited 17 healthy participants (control: 9, active: 8) to be involved in a 15-day -6° head-down bed rest (HDBR). A 30 min HD-tDCS was applied to the active group every other day during HDBR. We adopted three types of tasks: N-back, SCWT, and PVT to evaluate the effects, which were completed before, during, and after HDBR. The results showed that: (1) there was no significant difference in accuracy or in response time between the control and the active group. (2) The accuracy of SCWT before HDBR was significantly lower than that during and after HDBR. (3) Regardless of groups, the response time of all tasks showed a gradual decrease during HDBR. For the N-back and PVT tasks, the response time increased significantly in the control group and decreased significantly in the active group after HDBR. Those demonstrated that the working memory, attention, and alertness were elevated during 15-day -6° HDBR. HD-tDCS enhanced readaptation of cognitive functions after HDBR exposure.