of the process of human adaptation to long-term weightlessness and open the door to creating
a system for predicting the risk of developing health problems during flight.
RESULTS
Ten ISS Russian crew members took part in the Puls experiment. The results of this scientific
experiment showed that one important factor for evaluating the functional status of a crew
member's body was the degree of stress on regulatory mechanisms at various stages of flight.
In addition, it was demonstrated that long-term stress on the regulatory system leads to
reduced functional reserves in the body. It was established that the tests performed in flight,
involving set tempos for breathing and holding the breath at the inhalation and exhalation,
were highly informative. One of the most important results of the experiments is the discovery
of a direct link between the nature of adaptation to weightlessness and the individual's type of
involuntary regulation.
The results of these studies were highly important not only theoretically, but also practically.
First, knowledge of the individual type of involuntary regulation made possible the prediction of
the nature of the crew member's adaptation reaction during flight. Second, evaluation of the
status of autonomous regulation provided important information for the medical monitoring
system, since disruptions to the involuntary balance that was developed in flight, shown as
changes in the cardiac rhythm, significantly precede metabolic and structural disruptions in
affected organs. Given an existing decline in self-regulation, the body is still capable, for a time,
of maintaining high performance (while stress on the regulatory system is increasing). But then
a break in adaptation may occur, in the form of various disruptions, including disruptions in the
cardiovascular system. Thirdly, the increasing stress on the regulatory system during the flight
required serious attention from the medical monitoring service, as a risk factor for the
development of pathological changes.
The data obtained showed there was promise in further development of the proposed methods
as applied to the task of improving the system for medical monitoring of crew members' health
during long-term spaceflight.
PUBLICATION(S)
Baevsky RM, Luchitskaya ES, Funtova II, Chernikova AG. Study of the autonomic regulation of
blood circulation during a long-term spaceflight. Human Physiology. October 11,
2013;39(5):486-495. doi: 10.1134/S0362119713050046.
Baevsky RM, Okhritskiy AA, Pashchenko AV, Prilutskiy DA, Funtova II. Polygraph software for
scientific experiments. Meditsinskaya Tekhnika. 2007;1: 19 -24.
Baevsky RM, Pashchenko AV, Funtova II, Tank J. Нeart Rate Variability Onboard the
International Space Station. 12th Congress of the International Society for Holter and
Noninvasive Electrocardiology. Athens, Greece. June 7-9, 2007.