Three astronauts on a planned mission to the International Space Station (ISS) will wear a specially-designed helmet to monitor the effects of space exploration on brain activity, the company behind the headwear said.<\/p>\n
The 10-day mission by space-flight firm Axiom, which will be the first-ever private trip to the space station, is due to launch on April 3 with four astronauts onboard.<\/p>\n
Data has continuously been collected on astronauts' heart rate, skin resistance, muscle mass and others in space but not yet on brain activity, Yair Levy, Chief Executive of Brain.Space, the ,<\/p>\n
creators of the electroencephalogram (EEG)-enabled helmet, told Reuters.<\/p>\n
\"This system does not depend on any technician, does not require any preparation or any special process to wear it. [You just] just click on a button and it's done, and you can start measuring brain activity,\" he said.<\/p>\n
The Brain.Space project will join 30 other experiments that will take part in the so-called Rakia Mission to the ISS.<\/p>\n
Three of the four astronauts - including Israeli Eytan Stibbe - will wear the helmet, which has 460 airbrushes that connect to the scalp, and perform a number of tasks for 20 minutes a day, during which data will be uploaded to a laptop on the space station.<\/p>\n
The tasks include a \"visual oddball\" test that the company says has been effective in detecting abnormal brain dynamics.<\/p>\n
Similar studies using these tasks have been completed on Earth.<\/p>\n
After the mission, Brain.Space will compare the EEG data to see the differences in brain activity between Earth and space.<\/p>\n
Carrying out such experiments is a vital component in advancing human spaceflight particularly as long-term space exploration and \"off-world living are within grasp\".<\/p>\n
Brain.Space, which said it raised $8.5 million (7.6 million) in a seed funding round, bills itself as a brain infrastructure company and is working with the cognitive and brain sciences department at Israel's Ben Gurion University to transform terabytes of data into usable insights.<\/p>\n
Levy said he hoped the space mission would be a springboard for other institutions, researchers and software developers to use its brain data platform.<\/p>\n
\"Our vision is to create a language of the brain and to allow physicians, researchers and even app developers to use this language and to create products and services based on the brain\".<\/p>\n
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What does space do to the human brain? Astronauts on the ISS will wear this helmet to find out - Euronews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Three astronauts on a planned mission to the International Space Station (ISS) will wear a specially-designed helmet to monitor the effects of space exploration on brain activity, the company behind the headwear said. The 10-day mission by space-flight firm Axiom, which will be the first-ever private trip to the space station, is due to launch on April 3 with four astronauts onboard Continue reading