Learning on Jupiter, learning on the Moon: The dark side of the G-force. Effects of gravity changes on neurovascular unit and modulation of learning and memory

1. Front Behav Neurosci. 2012 Sep 24;6:64. eCollection 2012.

Learning on Jupiter, learning on the Moon: the dark side of the G-force. Effects
of gravity changes on neurovascular unit and modulation of learning and memory.

Porte Y(1), Morel JL.

Author information:
(1)Université de Bordeaux Bordeaux, France ; Centre National de la Recherche
Scientifique Unité Mixte de Recherche 5293, Institut des Maladies
Neurodégénératives Talence, France.

On earth, gravity vector conditions the development of all living beings by
physically imposing an axis along which to build their organism. Thus, during
their whole life, they have to fight against this force not only to maintain
their architectural organization but also to coordinate the communication between
organs and keep their physiology in a balanced steady-state. In space, astronauts
show physiological, psychological, and cognitive deregulations, ranging from bone
decalcification or decrease of musculature, to depressive-like disorders, and
spatial disorientation. Nonetheless, they are confronted to a great amount of
physical changes in their environment such as solar radiations, loss of
light-dark cycle, lack of spatial landmarks, confinement, and obviously a
dramatic decrease of gravity force. It is thus very hard to selectively
discriminate the strict role of gravity level alterations on physiological, and
particularly cerebral, dysfunction. To this purpose, it is important to design
autonomous models and apparatuses for behavioral phenotyping utilizable under
modified gravity environments. Our team actually aims at working on this area of
research.

DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2012.00064
PMCID: PMC3449275
PMID: 23015785

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