Transfer of perceptual-motor training and the space adaptation syndrome

Abstract

Perceptual cue conflict may be the basis for the symptoms which are experienced by space travelers in microgravity conditions. Recovery has been suggested to take place after perceptual modification or reinterpretation. To elucidate this process, 10 subjects who repeatedly experienced a visual/vestibular conflict (Purkinje) over trials and days, were then tested in a similar but not identical perceptual situation (pseudo-Coriolis) to determine whether any savings in perceptual adaptation had occurred as compared to an unpracticed control group (N = 10). The practiced subjects experienced lessening dizziness and ataxia within and over sessions. Their response to the new perceptual situation was markedly less than the control group (p less than 0.001). Assessment of "adaptability," in addition to the provocative vestibular tests now in use, may improve prediction of susceptibility to the space adaptation syndrome. An adaptability trait may exist in humans which, properly measured, could be used to predict who would adapt more readily to visual/vestibular conflict and perhaps to environmental stressors in general.