ABSTRACT
The Chinese space station will be built around 2020. As a national space laboratory, it will offer unique opportunities for studying the physiological effects of weightlessness and the efficacy of the countermeasures against such effects. In this paper, we described the development of countermeasure systems in the Chinese space program. To emphasize the need of the Chinese space program to implement its own program for developing countermeasures, we reviewed the literature on the negative physiological effects of weightlessness, the challenges of completing missions, the development of countermeasure devices, the establishment of countermeasure programs, and the efficacy of the countermeasure techniques in American and Russian manned spaceflights. In addition, a brief overview was provided on the Chinese research and development on countermeasures to discuss the current status and goals of the development of countermeasures against physiological problems associated with weightlessness.
Subject(s)
Humans , China , Program Evaluation , Space Flight , Weightlessness , Weightlessness SimulationABSTRACT
In the early days of space flight,space motion sickness and spatial disorientation were always essential medical problems in space medicine.Either of them was closely connected with visual and vestibular system in its development.Nowadays some progresses were made in the researches about brain cognitive function changes during visual or vestibular stimulation,but the effects of visual-vestibular interaction on the brain cognitive processing are still under exploration.Lots of research techniques have been used in cognitive explorations,the brain event-related potentials(ERP) with its high time resolution is an objective and convenient means.In this article,the anatomic bases of visual,vestibular system and their projection to cortex,research progresses in visual cognition explored with ERP and current phenomena about the effects of visual-vestibular interaction on brain cognitive processing were reviewed.Research directions about visual-vestibular interaction on cognitive processing were put forward in order to provide reference for future studies.