Some astronauts at risk for cognitive impairment, animal studies suggest
Wednesday, April 23, 2014 - 17:01
in Health & Medicine
Rats exposed to high-energy particles, simulating conditions astronauts would face on a long-term deep space mission, show lapses in attention and slower reaction times, even when the radiation exposure is in extremely low dose ranges, new research shows. The cognitive impairments — which affected a large subset, but far from all, of the animals — appear to be linked to protein changes in the brain, the scientists say.