HOUSTON, May 11 (UPI) -- A new technology that marries the diagnostic properties of near-infrared light with the brain-mapping power of magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, is under development by a NASA-backed center that one day envisions a lightweight "brain cap" helping assess astronauts' mental performance in orbit.
"We want to bring functional neuroimaging to space," said Jeffrey Sutton, director of NASA's National Space Biomedical Research Institute and leader of its smart medical systems team. "We know that performance and behavior cut across many of the areas of the brain."
The cap uses a scanning technique called diffuse optical tomography. Pinpoints of near-infrared light are beamed through the skull and into the brain to illuminate differences in blood flow and oxygen levels in various regions of the cerebral cortex. A computer analyzes the differences to reveal areas of brain activity.
"We're interested in a moving picture of the brain, a way to monitor changes in regional blood flow and oxygen and how it is delivered to different parts of the brain," said Sutton.
Ground-based studies at Massachusetts General Hospital are underway and Sutton hopes to arrange for a microgravity field test next year aboard a special NASA jet that flies up and down in giant arcs to simulate weightlessness for short periods of time.
Study participants are evaluated doing relatively simple tasks, such as moving their hands during normal and sleep-deprived conditions, said Sutton. Though the research is in the early stages, it has attracted support from NASA and the National Institutes of Health.
A paper about the research has been submitted for publication in research journals and is currently under review, said lead author Gary Strangman, who heads a neurobiology team at Massachusetts General.
Although the NASA center focuses on developing countermeasures for microgravity's harmful effects and mitigating risks to astronauts, the brain cap has many applications on Earth. For example, the cap could be used to diagnose and monitor brain disorders, such as stoke and seizures, Sutton said.
For its potential use in space, the cap could be used to monitor brain activity during critical tasks and evaluate behavioral problems, headaches and head injuries.
"We know that there are fluid shifts when people go into space, but what is not well known are the changes in intercranial pressures and fluid shifts in the brain," said Sutton. "We're also interested in performance in the space environment because performance failures can be life- and mission-threatening."
(Reported by Irene Brown at Cape Canaveral, Fla.)
