title: Altered Gravity Simulated by Parabolic Flight and Water Immersion Leads to Decreased Trunk Motion.
abstract: Gravity is one of the important environmental factors that influence the physiologies and behaviors of animals and humans, and changes in gravity elicit a variety of physiological and behavioral alterations that include impaired movement coordination, vertigo, spatial disorientation, and perceptual illusions. To elucidate the effects of gravity on human physiology and behavior, we examined changes in wrist and trunk activities and heart rate during parabolic flight and the activity of wrist and trunk in water immersion experiments. Data from 195 person-time parabolas performed by eight subjects revealed that the trunk motion counts decreased by approximately half during ascending legs (hypergravity), relative to the data acquired before the parabolic flights. In contrast, the wrist activity remained unchanged. The results from the water immersion experiments demonstrated that in the underwater condition, both the wrist and trunk activities were significantly decreased but the latter decreased to a much lower level. Together, these data suggest that gravitational alterations can result in differential influences on the motions of the wrist and the trunk. These findings might be important for understanding the degeneration of skeleton and muscular system and performance of astronauts in microgravity.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Gene Engineering of the Ministry of Education, State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Peiliang
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Gene Engineering of the Ministry of Education, State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Zheng
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Gene Engineering of the Ministry of Education, State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Dongni
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: National Key Laboratory of Human Factors Engineering, China Astronaut Research and Training Center, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tian
authors.affiliation: National Key Laboratory of Human Factors Engineering, China Astronaut Research and Training Center, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Fan
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: National Key Laboratory of Human Factors Engineering, China Astronaut Research and Training Center, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Shaoyao
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Gene Engineering of the Ministry of Education, State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Lin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: National Key Laboratory of Human Factors Engineering, China Astronaut Research and Training Center, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Yaoyu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: National Key Laboratory of Human Factors Engineering, China Astronaut Research and Training Center, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Weibo
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: National Key Laboratory of Human Factors Engineering, China Astronaut Research and Training Center, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Chunhui
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: National Key Laboratory of Human Factors Engineering, China Astronaut Research and Training Center, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Shanguang
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Gene Engineering of the Ministry of Education, State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Jinhu
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Guo
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D018470:Gravity, Altered; D006339:Heart Rate; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009038:Motion; D009043:Motor Activity; D014953:Wrist; D055815:Young Adult