Mental performance during short-term and long-term spaceflight

During the last years several attempts have been made to describe changes in the mental efficiency of astronauts during space missions by means of performance monitoring studies. These studies are characterized by repeated multivariate assessment of different functions of the human information-processing system. In the present paper, a first review of performance monitoring studies during short-term and long-term spaceflight is given. Despite the comparatively small number of studies, a fairly consistent pattern of effects can be derived: Whereas no or only slight impairments of elementary and complex cognitive functions or spatial processing were found in space, clear disturbances could be identified in visuo-motor tracking and dual-task performance. Both of these latter effects appear to be closely related to adaptation to altered gravity conditions. General issues of this strategy of research are discussed which concern the disentanglement of microgravity-related effects and unspecific stress effects on mental performance under conditions of spaceflight. In addition, possible mechanisms which may be responsible for tracking disturbances under microgravity are discussed, and some directions for future human performance research in space are outlined. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.