Adaptive Effects on Locomotion Performance Following Exposure to a Rotating Virtual Environment

During long-duration spaceflight, astronauts experience alterations in vestibular and somatosensory cues that result in adaptive disturbances in balance and coordination upon return to Earth. These changes can pose a risk to crew safety and to mission objectives if nominal or emergency vehicle egress is required immediately following long-duration spaceflight. At present, no operational countermeasure is available to mitigate the adaptive sensorimotor component underlying the locomotor disturbances that occur after spaceflight. Therefore, the goal of this study is to develop an inflight training regimen that facilitates recovery of locomotor function after long-duration spaceflight. The countermeasure we are proposing is based on the concept of adaptive generalization. During this type of training the subject gains experience producing the appropriate adaptive motor behavior under a variety of sensory conditions and response constraints. As a result of this training a subject learns to solve a class of motor problems, rather than a specific motor solution to one problem, i.e., the subject learns response generalizability or the ability to "learn to learn." under a variety of environmental constraints. We are developing an inflight countermeasure built around treadmill exercise activities. By manipulating the sensory conditions of exercise by varying visual flow patterns, body load and speed we will systematically and repeatedly promote adaptive change in locomotor behavior. It has been shown that variable practice training increases adaptability to novel visuo-motor situations. While walking over ground in a stereoscopic virtual environment that oscillated in roll, subjects have shown compensatory torso rotation in the direction of scene rotation that resulted in positional variation away from a desired linear path. Thus, postural sway and locomotor stability in 1-g can be modulated by visual flow patterns and used during inflight treadmill training to promote adaptive generalization. The purpose of this study was to determine if adaptive modification in locomotor performance could be achieved by viewing simulated self-motion in a passive-immersive virtual ' environment over a prolonged period during treadmill locomotion.