Squashed in space: Study identifies changes in astronauts’ brains
Without gravity to pull the brain toward astronauts' feet, it shifts toward the top of the skull during prolonged space missions.
Sure, space travel makes bones and muscles atrophy and alters the distribution of blood and other bodily fluids, among other physiological consequences of microgravity, but what does it do to the brain? Since astronauts on a mission to Mars will need their wits about them, NASA and outside scientists have been keen to assess the effects of prolonged weightlessness on the 3 pounds of protoplasm inside the skull.
