[Effects of long-term space flights on organization of horizontal gaze fixation reaction].
Results of Russian-Austrian space experiment "Monimir" which was a part of international space program "Austromir" are presented in this paper. Characteristics of horizontal gaze fixation reaction (hGFR) to visual targets were analyzed. Seven crewmembers of "Mir" space station expeditions took part in the experiment. Experiments were carried out 4 times before space flight, 5 times in flight and 3-4 times after landing. There were revealed significant alterations in characteristics of gaze fixation reaction during flight and after its accomplishing, namely: an increase of the time of gaze fixation to the target, changes of eye and head movements' velocity and increase of the gain of vestibular-ocular reflex, that pointed out to the disturbances of the control mechanisms of vestibular-ocular reflex in weightlessness caused by changes of vestibular input's activity. There was discovered also the difference in the strategies of adaptation to microgravity conditions among the cosmonauts of flight and non-flight occupation: in the first group exposure to weightlessness was accompanied by gaze hypermetry and inhibition of head movements; in the second one--on the contrary--by increase of head movement velocity and decrease of saccades' velocity.
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Tomilovskaia
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Kozlovskaia
D000328:Adult; D005133:Eye Movements; D019416:Head Movements; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D018531:Spacecraft; D013997:Time Factors; D014722:Vestibule, Labyrinth; D014785:Vision, Ocular; D014893:Weightlessness / Q000009:adverse effects*