WASHINGTON: Astronauts travelling to Mars could develop irr8eversible dementia because their brains will be bombarded with %destructive space radiation, researchers, including those of In8dian origin, have warned.
Researchers found that exposure to highly energetic charged particles – much like those found in the galactic cosmic rays that bombard astronauts during extended spaceflights – cause sig8nificant damage to the central nervous system, resulting in cognitive impairments. “This is not positive news for astronauts deployed on a two- to three-year round trip to Mars,” said Charles Limoli, a professor at the University of California, Irvine (UCI).
“Performance decrements, memory deficits and loss of awareness and focus during spaceflight may affect mission-critical activities, and exposure to these particles may have long-term adverse consequences to cognition throughout life,” said Limoli.
For the study, rodents were subjected to charged particle irradiation (fully ionized oxygen and titanium) at the Nasa Space Radiation Laboratory at the Brookhaven National Laboratory. The researchers including Vipan Kumar Parihar and Munjal Acharya of UCI, found that exposure to these particles resulted in brain inflammation, which disrupted the transmission of signals among neurons. Imaging revealed how the brain’s communication network was impaired through reductions in the structure of nerve cells called dendrites and spines.
Additional synaptic alterations in combination with the structural changes interfered with the capability of nerve cells to efficiently transmit electrochemical signals.
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