Journal
NEUROSCIENCE AND BIOBEHAVIORAL REVIEWS
Volume 122, Issue -, Pages 218-228Publisher
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2020.10.025
Keywords
Otolith; Hair cells; Nerve afferents; Weightlessness; Hypergravity; Synapse; Electrophysiology; Boyle; R; Otolith adaptive responses to altered gravity; Space neuroscience
Categories
Funding
- NIH/NIDCD [P01 DC01837]
- NASA [NAG2-945/Neurolab/STS-95, 03-OBPR-04]
- NASA Human Research (HRP) Program
- Space Biology Program
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Gravity plays a crucial role in animal evolution, affecting various aspects such as movement, spatial orientation, and postural stability. Different species may execute movements differently, but the sensory systems detecting acceleration forces have been conserved and maintained among vertebrates. Changes in gravity can have profound and global effects on organisms.
The force of gravity has remained constantly present over the course of animal evolution and forms our frame of reference with the environment, including spatial orientation, navigation, gaze and postural stability. Inertial head accelerations occur within this gravity frame of reference naturally during voluntary movements and perturbations. Execution of movements of aquatic, terrestrial and flight species widely differ, but the sensory systems detecting acceleration forces, including gravity, have remained remarkably conserved among vertebrates. The utricular organ senses the sum of inertial force due to head translation and head tilt relative to gravitational vertical. A sudden or persistent change in gravitational force would be expected to have profound and global effects on an organism. Physiological data collected immediately after orbital missions, after short and extended increases in gravity load via centrifugation, and after readaptation to normal gravity exist in the toadfish model. This review focuses on the otolith adaptive responses to changes in gravity in a number of model organisms and their potential impact on human space travel.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available